CARING FOR THE KING OF SENSES

CARING FOR THE KING OF SENSES

Of the five senses (hearing, touch, smell, taste and sight), sight or vision is regarded as the king of all. It’s the window of life and among the most highly specialised and sensitive organ of the body.

To enable you to see, light rays must pass through the cornea (the front of the eye), pupil (the black hole) and lens to be focused on your retina (at the back of your eye).

Many people have otherwise healthy eyes, apart from refractive errors (long sightedness, short sightedness, astigmatism) that develop in childhood. These refractive errors can readily be diagnosed during routine eye tests and can usually be corrected wearing glasses/contact lenses. In addition, ageing can also affect your eyes, making it progressively more difficult for you to read tiny prints (presbyopia - which can also be corrected with glasses).

Regular eye examinations should be part of your normal health regime from childhood because a simple eye test can pick up eye conditions like glaucoma, cataract, macular degeneration etc. If detected early enough, these conditions can be treated and managed effectively before complications such as sight loss can develop. It could also detect the signs of other conditions including diabetes, hypertension, raised cholesterol etc.

According to World health Organisation (WHO) estimates:

-          About 285 million people are visually impaired worldwide

-          39 million are blind

-          246 million have low vision (severe/moderate visual impairment)

-          Preventable causes are as high as 80% of the total global visual impairment burden

-          About 90% of the worlds visually impaired people live in developing countries

-          Globally, uncorrected refractive errors are the main cause of visual impairment

-          Cataracts are the leading the cause of blindness

The Nigerian national survey on blindness and low vision estimates that approximately one million adult Nigerians are blind and three million people are visually impaired. Eighty one percent of blindness is among adult about fifty years or more.

Poverty works with illiteracy and ignorance to cause disease and blindness. Overall, two out of three Nigerians are blind from causes which could be avoided. It is therefore a sensible precaution to have eye examinations regularly.

World Sight day is an annual day of awareness to focus global attention on blindness, visual impairment and rehabilitation of the visually impaired.