Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Aboagye
The Ashanti Regional Ophthalmologist of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Kwadwo Amoah, has encouraged Ghanaians to examine their sights to curtail eye related disease, especially glaucoma.
According to him, the irreversible disease places Ghana second to St Lucia and Barbados in a global ranking.
He added that a report from survey conducted under the National Blindness and Visual Impairment Survey indicated that 700,000 people who report to eye clinics are affected with glaucoma.
Speaking on the theme “The World is Bright, Save Your Sight”, at the World Glaucoma Week celebration in Kumasi, the eye specialist indicated that glaucoma blindness is irreversible, saying “that is why it has assumed public health importance.’’
Data
“If you look at Ghana, our data shows that 8.5 per cent of people who are forty years and over have glaucoma and about 7.7 per cent of thirty years and over have glaucoma, and these are proportions which have been conferred with Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya and other bigger countries,” Dr Kwadwo Amoah revealed.
He added: “52 per cent of Ghanaians who visit the hospital are blind in one eye from glaucoma and 34 per cent are blind from both eyes. This is a disease that causes blindness. I want to emphasise that the responsibility to secure your vision is 100 per cent in your hands.”
The World Glaucoma Week is set aside by the International Centre of Prevention of Blindness, an agency that works under the World Health Organisation (WHO), to sensitize people on glaucoma.
For his part, Dr Emmanuel Tenkorang, the Ashanti Regional Health Director, noted that glaucoma is one of the most serious eye conditions that causes blindness silently.
He stressed that sometimes it does not give any warning.
Dr Tenkorang warned that the disease is dangerous.
“If we are able to create awareness with people participating in the screening, the problem can be detected as early as possible. This week has been set aside for screening so that people with such challenges can be detected for medical attention,” he noted.
The Acting Regional Coordinating Director, Joseph Darko, urged Ghanaians to take issues concerning their eye health seriously due to the unpleasant results of glaucoma.
He said the eye should equally be given the needed attention, and therefore called for regular eyes screening.
