Save Your Eyesight

Visual impairment can be debilitating as we have witnessed people with such problems facing extreme difficulty doing their day-to-day activities. For one reason or other, doing regular eye checkup does not fall in our priority. We often overlook eye problems in the early stage before they start to cause serious damage to our eyesight. Refractive errors, cataract, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and age related macular degeneration have been identified as the major causes of visual impairment in Nepal. Among all these contributing factors, cataract is the prominent cause of blindness, accounting for over 80 per cent cases of blindness that could be avoided. In majority of the cases, eyesight of the people could have been saved had they got the timely treatment. Globally, at least 2.2 billion people have vision impairment and about 1.1 billion preventable cases of vision impairment are yet to be addressed. 

On October 12, Nepal observed the World Sight Day, a global event that is celebrated every year on the second Thursday of October. This year’s World Sight day has the theme of ‘Love your eyes at work’, with special emphasis on raising awareness of the protection of people’s vision at the workplace which largely involves exposure to computer or mobile screens for prolonged hours. There is an appeal to the employers and business leaders to prioritise the ophthalmic health of the workers. Opthalmologists have very appropriately highlighted the need to conduct regular eye checkups to ensure a healthy sight. The nature of our work these days compels us to look at digital devices like computer for a long time which causes dryness of eyes and headache which results problem in our eyesight. It is important to take a break from screen radiation and give rest to our eyes to comfort them. 

In addition to getting our eyes examined regularly, eating unprocessed food reach in vitamin C and E, eating food rich in Omega 3 fatty acid, wearing sunglasses with ultraviolet (UV) protection, getting right amount of sleep, giving our eyes a refreshing break from screens and practicing good eye hygiene can significantly reduce the risk of macular degeneration of eye and cataract. It is extremely important to raise awareness of the importance of eye health, as most of the people in our country don’t know how to keep eyes healthy and protect eyesight. According to the Tilganga Institute of Opthalmology, cataract stands as the leading cause of blindness in Nepal. Dr. Sanduk Ruit has contributed to restore the eye sight of over 180,000 people using small-incision cataract surgery. 

Cataract surgery has become less expensive and easily available, but still people in remote places of Nepal are suffering from cataract and other problems leading to visual impairment as they don’t have easy eye care facility. Conducting eye camps in the remote places is extremely essential so that people can have access to eye specialists and undergo cataract surgery. Women, people from rural areas and ethnic minority group are more likely to have vision impairment as they are less likely to have access to eye care service. As the people above 50 are more likely to develop cataract problems, they need to be covered by the government’s eye checkup and eye care programmes. The nation needs to have a vision to save eye sight of the people.