RAWALPINDI, Aug 27: More than 50,000 children in Pakistan are facing severe eye complications that subsequently lead to blindness. A survey report of Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Rawalpindi, says that at least 15 per cent of the blindness is due to cataract, 12 per cent glaucoma while the rest is due to other eye complications like birth defects, infections and vitamin A deficiency.

Dr Tayyab Afghani, a senior eye specialist at Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital while speaking about the state of eye complications in children, said due to lack of awareness and proper eye care facilities in the rural areas, blindness was becoming very common among people living in the rural areas especially children.

He said 40,000 children needed eye glasses but more than 50 per cent did not wear them that caused permanent vision deficiencies and ultimately affected the academic performance and other daily activities of the child.

He said trauma was also one of the major factors of blindness in children. There are many cases where children damage their eyes as a result of domestic and school sports activities or through some accidents. He said children must be closely watched by their parents while playing with toys.

Spring action toys, pistols, sharp point articles like needles, scissors, knives, pencils, geometry box instruments, all these had been implicated in injuring the eye and subsequently leading to loss of vision, Dr Tayyab said.

He said Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital was a state-of-the-art hospital where more than 75 per cent of the patients were given free eye treatment. With its operations in Rawalpindi, Sukkur and Kohat, the hospital is treating thousands of eye patients on daily basis, said Dr Tayyab.

He said 75 per cent of the patients were treated free of cost at Al-Shifa Trust.

In the area of paediatric ophthalmology of children related eye diseases, Al-Shifa Trust has a separate fully equipped department known as the Paediatric Ophthalmology Department.

The department is equipped with foreign qualified eye specialists and with state-of-the-art technology and every year on an average, 2,000 children are operated upon.

On daily basis around 150 to 200 children are given eye treatment, providing them spectacles and medicine, Dr Tayyab said.

The department also has a low vision counselling section where patients with irrecoverable eye damages are provided counselling and training to perform their daily life activities with ease and live their lives more independently, he said.

He said apart from the hospital activities, Al-Shifa Trust was also running a community outreach programme under its ACCO (Al-Shifa Centre for Community Ophthalmology) department. Under this programme, free school eye screenings are conducted and children are provided free eyeglasses and medicines.

Dr Tayyab said till date more than two million children were provided eye screening. The department also holds free eye camps at far-flung areas and patients are provided with free treatment.

He further said common diseases among children found in the free camps were cataract, glaucoma, genetic congenial, squint, refractive error, retinal degeneration and many other eye elegies.

He also asked parents to get the eyes of their children examined, adding that those with low vision should have them checked every six months to avoid further complications.