As Nigeria joins the global community to commemorate the World Sight Day, the federal government has launched three policy documents to boost eye care services in the country.
World Sight Day is an annual event observed on the second Thursday of October to draw attention to blindness and vision impairment.
Speaking during the inauguration in Abuja, the minister of state for health and social welfare, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the policy documents and unveiling of the refractive Error Initiative were part of government’s strategic guidelines to improve eye care services in the country.
The documents include: The National Eye Health Strategic Development Plan (2024-2028), Diabetic Retinopathy screening and management guideline and the Nigeria Glaucoma Guidelines and Toolkit.
The minister said 24 million Nigerians were living with treatable sight loss, adding that the two leading causes of blondness were untreated cataract and uncorrected refractive errors.
He said the policy documents would build the foundations to deliver change across the life course: access to eye health services for school children through school eye health programmes, establishing the potential to unlock learning for millions of children being held behind.
Alausa said the goal of the initiative is to complement governments efforts while strengthening the eye health system to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals; empowering Nigerians to learn, earn and thrive.
The National Coordinator, NEHP Programme at the ministry, Dr Oteri Okolo
said about 1.3 Nigerians were blind and about 80 percent of the blindness are from avoidable causes.
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