From Layi Olanrewaju, Ilorin
Professor of Ophthalmology with the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Dupe Ademola Popoola has called on the government at all levels to provide budget lines in relevant ministries and departments to prevent childhood blindness in toddlers.
She said, “Worldwide, every second a child goes blind somewhere, about 1.5 million children (about half the population of Kwara state) are blind and 19 million visually impaired.”
Delivering the 235th inaugural lecture of the University of Ilorin titled: “Illusion to vision”: A symphony of trial and tramp of child eye health”, Ademola- Popoola also advocated early screening for children at immunisation clinics, before school entry.
“Early detection and treatment of childhood eye diseases are important to prevent/ reverse vision impairment/blindness are different from causes in adults. Children’s eyes are not small adult eyes, when diseased, they required different strategies, specific equipment and long follow up to prevent and manage complications such as amblyopia,” she said.
She also encouraged members of the public to help a treatable visually impaired child to access quality treatment, noting that that could be done by the offer of quality advice to his or her parents instead of paying no concern.
Prof. Ademola-Popoola, who has generated many products in the field of eye care, also appealed to well-to-do individuals and groups to devote parts of the funds they often commit to the celebration of weddings, birthdays and funerals as donations toward the treatment of visually impaired children in our various communities.
While saying that the visually impaired could still live productive lives, the renowned medical scientist enjoined parents and families of the visually challenged ones to enrol such children in appropriate schools and vocational training centres for them to be positively engaged.
The Inaugural Lecturer, who gave accounts of her various contributions to the study and treatment of defects in child’s eyes, encouraged the government and other stakeholders to give more support to the research efforts of practitioners of various fields, particularly those on child eye health child.
She also explained that it is very important for parents and management of schools to insist on relevant eye tests before children are enrolled in schools, saying that the possibility of detecting one eye defect or the other at that level is high. Prof. Ademola-Popoola also appealed to the Federal Government to at least establish two tertiary-level eye care centres in each geopolitical zone of the country, pointing out that doing so would bring treatment closer to children of the ordinary people. Similarly, Prof Ademola-Popoola also encouraged the establishment of an Institute of Child Eye Care, particularly in Kwara State for proper study and treatment of sight-related inadequacies. She canvassed the greater involvement of the media in the campaign towards early detection of blindness, saying that when the media repeatedly draw the attention of parents to the need to show greater interest in the eyes of their children more detections of possible blindness would be recorded and addressed. The Professor of Ophthalmology also called for crosscutting and multidisciplinary approaches to the study and treatment of eye defects in children.