Plateau Govt Urged To Increase Cataract Surgical Coverage

A Survey Group, Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness, has urged the Plateau State government to increase its cataract surgical coverage from 10.8 percent to 40.8 percent by the year 2030 to achieve the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) target adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2021.

RAAB further said the state would require an increase in the number of surgeries conducted, and improvement in the post-operative visual acuity experienced by patients, stressing that work is further required to understand the reasons behind low uptake of cataract services in the state and to identify the key drivers of poor post-operative visual outcome.
The principal investigator of the survey, Dr. Alice Ramyil, stated this at a meeting to assess the success of the programme while putting the prevalence of blindness in Plateau State at 2.7 percent.

The Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness is designed to measure the magnitude and causes of visual impairment in people 50 years and above and the extent to which services are reaching different groups of people.

The meeting was intended to disseminate findings of the study and know the magnitude of blindness that is particularly avoidable.

Dr. Alice Ramyil further said the figure was higher than the 0.7 percent national figure, with the major causes being cataract and Glacoma, both of which can be avoidable.