It helps check incidence of early blindness among children in view of the magnitude of amblyopia
District Collector V.Seshadri on Thursday inaugurated the Amblyopia Clinic at LV Prasad Eye Institute, GMR Varalakshmi Campus, here.
He welcomed the launching of the clinic, the first of its kind in the country, to check incidence of early blindness among children in view of the magnitude of amblyopia.
Mr. Seshadri wanted LVPEI to collaborate with the Andhra Pradesh Government in its screening programme for schoolchildren “Chinnarichoopu.”
CEO of Symbiosys Technologies O. Naresh Kumar launched the self-illuminating vision testing board using which children could test for themselves whether they had any problem with their vision or teachers could help them do so.
The board has been designed by LVPEI and Symbiosys Technologies would help it provide them to schools.
Mr. Naresh Kumar urged the Collector to provide land for a world class research institute in the city. LVPEI is ready to provide technical know-how.
Explaining the seriousness of amblyopia or “lazy eye condition,’ paediatric ophthalmologist Virender Sachdeva said it would reduce vision and could not be corrected with glasses or contact lenses and was most common cause of blindness among children. Children cannot express themselves about it and parents generally cannot identify it. Hence it was important to spread awareness, Dr. Sachdeva said.
Teachers in five schools, including Timpany and Pollocks, have already been trained and they would be provided the self-testing boards. A free clinic for school children would be conducted at the LVPEI City Centre at VIP Road on November 18. During the five years, the eye care centre had treated 40,000 children and 4,500 surgeries were performed.
LVPEI Directors Merle Fernandes and Avinash Pathengay and assistant director (administration) K. Anil Kumar participated.
Keywords: early blindness, LV Prasad Eye Institute
This is a landmark development, and I would like to thank the Clinic and entire staff. Too often, this condition goes undetected because of lack of awareness from parents. Parents often confuse the symptoms with anything else (including stupid superstitions), and parent(s) is/are the first responder(s) to this condition. Parents should be aware of this condition, and should get a regular eye exam/checkup. This is another stumbling block: most eye exams/checkups do not check for lazy eye condition(s), and the condition goes undetected. As a matter of fact, there are ONLY a FEW pediatric ophthalmologists with the training in ANY place. The lazy eye condition-if detected early, can be completely corrected without regress, and patching treatment is simple/effective. If undetected/untreated, it causes needless/permanent harm to a child; the condition becomes permanent after about 10 years age. Awareness & checkup is required. Finally, be aware of quacks.
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