The National Eye Centre at the weekend sensitised cadets, officers and staff of the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna on glaucoma, saying about 1.4 million Nigerians currently suffer from the eye disease.
Speaking during the lecture on the theme: “Uniting for a Glaucoma free world” Dr. Hashiya Kana said the prevalence is about 16.7 among individuals from 40 years and above while about 70 million cases of the disease are reported with projections that 94 million cases will be recorded globally in 2030.
The representative of the NDA commandant, Air Vice Marshall SK Aneke who thanked the centre for bringing the sensitisation programme to the NDA, said the eye is one of the key parts of the body.
“For us, we don’t joke with the medical staff, even before you come into the academy your eyes are checked properly. Glaucoma as we all know is something that creeps in silently so we deem it fit to check before it becomes a problem.
“For a soldier, be you Army, Navy and Air Force you can’t identify what you can’t see. You can’t read what you can’t see. I am a pilot, you need to press buttons that are very tiny, even in the army sometimes you need to select coordinates, if you miss a digit, life will be at stake so we in the military do not take anything that has to do with the body, medically, with the eyes for a joke. We thank the eye centre for the continuation of our collaboration with them, we want to take this to the next level and this is just the first step in a lot of steps we are going to take,” he said.
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