Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti
A renowned optometrist and Chairman of the Ekiti State chapter of the Nigerian Optometry Association (NOA), Dr. Ayo Osadare, has put the number of children suffering from vision impairment in Nigeria at over five million.
Speaking during an advocacy visit to the state Ministry of Information on Monday, Osadare, who said that recent statistics released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicated that 19 million children are suffering from vision impairment globally, emphasised that one out of every four children have undetected vision problem that may impede their learning.
Osadare lamented that 80 per cent of cases of blindness in Nigeria were avoidable, describing the result of a recent survey which revealed that about 90 per cent of school age children in Nigeria had never undergone any form of eye examination as worrisome.
According to him, 12 million out of the 19 million estimated cases of visual impairment among children were as a result of refractive errors which could be corrected if detected early.
Osadare said NOA would hold free vision screening for children in selected schools nationwide in commemoration of the 2017 World Sight Day as part of efforts at reducing the prevalence of vision impairment in the country.
Details later…
