Africa, Development & Aid, Headlines, Health

HEALTH-NIGERIA: A Visionary Plan For Preventing Blindness

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Jun 23 2004 (IPS) - It is 08.00 in Iba Town – a suburb of Nigeria’s southern economic hub, Lagos – and people have defied heavy rains to start lining up outside a mobile clinic that treats eye disorders. The queue will ultimately include hundreds of peasant farmers, fishermen, traders, school children and senior citizens.

Seven tents have been set up in the sprawling court yard of a traditional leader’s residence. The first serves as a reception area where patients are registered, while the other six house facilities to test sight, diagnose diabetes (a possible cause of blindness), distribute spectacles and the like. Those patients with cataracts or other conditions requiring surgery will receive free operations.

“Those with glaucoma or cataracts (that need) surgery are tested for HIV/AIDS before they are referred to the ultra-modern clinic at the Ikeja General Hospital. We do the tests – including the HIV test – here, free,” said an official from the Lagos State Blindness Prevention Programme.

“We believe that if they discover they are HIV positive, they will not come for the surgery. Here we do not tell them their status but we send them and their files to the surgeons at the hospital.”

Efforts to prevent the needless onset of blindness amongst Lagos residents first started in 2000, when screenings were done in local government offices. Many people found it difficult to reach these offices, however, and it was clear that a more innovative approach was needed.

As a result, mobile clinics were introduced.

“At the beginning of this year, the strategy was improved upon because we want to get to the communities through the Obas. These are the community leaders who are able to mobilise the people at the grassroots level, and so we are able to touch the lives of our citizenry which cannot afford the cost of surgery in private hospitals,” Bridget Erikitola, Director of the Blindness Prevention Programme, told IPS. (“Oba” is the Yoruba word for traditional ruler. Yoruba is spoken in the south-west of the country.)

Eye surgery in Nigeria costs between 500 and 1,000 dollars, while a pair of glasses can cost as much as 70 dollars – the consultation with an optometrist not included. According to the United Nations Development Programme’s 2003 Human Development Report, up to 70 percent of Nigerians live below the poverty line of a dollar a day.

The residences of traditional rulers were chosen as venues for the clinics, because each community has such an authority.

“The Oba’s palace is within their neighbourhood, the service is free and all drugs, glasses and surgery are free,” says Erikitola, who cites an impressive array of statistics about the programme.

To date, about half-a-million people have been screened. Eight Oba residences have been visited, where people’s eyesight was examined over the course of five days. The mobile clinics have also distributed more than 20,000 pairs of glasses (while up to 100,000 spectacles have been issued since the start of the programme in 2000).

The United States-based Walgreens pharmacy has donated 400,000 pairs of spectacles to the programme. Previously, all glasses were bought by state officials.

Plans are now being made to extend the service to neighbouring states.

“We discover that people have come from neighhouring states to receive glasses free since the programme started. The good thing about it is that there is no element of bias: we do not look at your tribe, religion or party affiliation. Everybody who comes forward is attended to,” an official from the programme told IPS.

Erikitola lists cataracts and glaucoma – a condition of having too much fluid pressure within the eyeball – as being the two leading causes of blindness. Both of these conditions are treatable.

“We have found out that over 80 per cent of the incidence of blindness is due to reversible causes. Since cataracts, which are the major cause of blindness, are reversible through surgery, patients are able to gain their sight through this programme and live a normal life again,” she said.

“Also, if (glaucoma) is picked up early during the free screening exercise and (the patient) given surgery and medication, we are able to prevent further damage and in so doing we are able to prevent blindness in our society,” she adds.

In a country where little provision is made for those with disabilities, avoiding blindness can mean the difference between survival and destitution. The sight of blind people begging on the streets of Lagos is a common one.

Patients interviewed by IPS at the Iba Town clinic earlier this month (Jun. 16) were relieved at the relative proximity of the facility.

“I started having problems with my eyes last year October. But because of time, I did not go to the general hospital or our local government headquarters,” said Agnes Falomo, a trader.

“Today, I have been tested, I have received glasses. But, I have been referred to the general hospital for further tests. I pray I will not need any surgery,” she added.

Esther Akinyele, another trader, observed, “I notice for a long time that I cannot see far, but I was told that getting glasses is very costly so I just left myself to fate.”

“But when this programme came to the Oba’s palace, I came to be tested and I have received my glasses free. I thank God and the Lagos State government for this free eye service.”

 
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