spot_img
29 C
Philippines
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Services to the blind widened

- Advertisement -

SAYING one blind family member results in two unproductive family members, Health Secretary Paulyn Jean B. Rosell-Ubial announced the expansion of the Department of Health’s eye care services to communities.

Ubial said having a blind member in a family amounts to “a double whammy” because another will have to take care of the blind member and that sometimes leads to poverty and social dependency.

Because of this, Ubial cited the need to integrate eye care into public health programs at the local government unit level for continued advocacy and promotion of comprehensive eye care with focus on avoidable blindness.

She noted that the development of the Community Eye Health Program (CEHP) particularly at the primary level, district, and provincial settings, will be able to make most of shared referral and service delivery network from barangay health stations, rural health units up to tertiary hospitals.

She said the CEHP started in Nueva Ecija, Iloilo, Occidental Mindoro and Cavite.

- Advertisement -

She related that this initiative is being expanded to poor provinces like Eastern Samar, Leyte and Surigao in coordination with different non-government organizations, like Christoffel Blinden Mission, Fred Hollows Foundation, World Health Organization, National Committee for Sight Preservation and Cataract Foundation of the Philippines.

In the Philippines, the health chief said that based on the country’s 2015 population estimate, the current estimated number of persons who are bilaterally blind is 295.

She said 152, or 59 percent of the 295 bilaterally blind, is due to cataract and 14 percent due to uncorrected refractive errors. The rest are due to conditions like glaucoma, retinopathy, and maculopathy.

The current estimated number of persons who have low vision (moderate to severe visual impairment) is 1,430,109, of which 60 percent is due to errors of refraction, 30 percent due to cataract and the rest due to other conditions like glaucoma.

“Early detection and preventive care can help you keep your eyes healthy and avoid common causes of blindness,” said Ubial.

She said eating food rich in Vitamin A, regular eye exam, and avoiding long exposure to gadgets and computers by following the 20-20-20 rule (Every 20 minutes, look away for 20 seconds at something that is at least 20 feet away).

“A healthy vision and body should always start within us.” she further stated.

The 2012 World Health Organization report indicated that approximately 285 million people worldwide are visually impaired, with 39 million blind and 246 million with low vision.

Globally, uncorrected refractive errors are the main cause of visual impairment, followed by cataracts and glaucoma.

On the other hand, cataracts remain as the leading cause of blindness, followed by glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration.

Furthermore, 65 percent of visually-impaired individuals and 82 percent of blind people are over 50 years old.

- Advertisement -

LATEST NEWS

Popular Articles