The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Beware of glint in child’s eye

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Saturday, May 10, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Beware of glint in child’s eye

K. Venkateshwarlu

All shiny glints are not harmless, some are life-threatening ending in retinoblastoma—a rapidly growing childhood eye cancer

Before and after: Retinoblastoma is curable, provided it is detected in time.

HYDERABAD: Who would not like to possess Aishwarya Rai’s famed glint in the eye? If it comes with a cattish tinge so much better, one thought, for it always added to the persona.

Parents beware. For, not all such glints you would be proud of flaunting or worst still, ignore, are harmless, some are life-threatening.

The white glow, first appearing within the child’s eye, shining out in darkness much like a cat’s eye, could be the earliest symptom of retinoblastoma—a rapidly growing childhood eye cancer.

Rapid development

The tumour can develop so rapidly that sometimes, within a few days, the eye suddenly protrudes and weighs down the child’s face. Like it happened to two-year-old Rakshita. Both her cancerous eyes had to be removed to save her. Three years have passed by but her parents still remember the misty morning they stood mystified when they were asked to choose the colour of her new artificial eyes.

Not every child needs to end up like Rakshita. According to eye specialist Santosh Honavar, who helped in establishing the Children’s Eye Cancer Centre at the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute here, retinoblastoma is curable. Provided, of course, it is detected in time—parents need to rush to an eye specialist for a through examination as soon as they sight the cat’s eye glint in their child.

Myths

On the eve of the retinoblastoma awareness week (May 11-17), eye specialists say the story of eye cancer among children in India has been that of loss of eye and life owing to the myths, first of them being that a cat’s eye glint bestows beauty. Superstitious beliefs include dismissing the bulging tumour in the eye as a flower that will wilt or as an omen a child is specially endowed with. These have to be rooted out.

In India, 1,000 children are born with retinoblastoma every year. At the L. V. Prasad Eye Institute, about 150 children are diagnosed and treated for eye cancer every year. Dr. Honavar says there has been a five-fold increase over the last 10 years in the number of patients referred to the institute, thanks in part to its poster campaign.

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