Awareness rally on early eye screening among children

Jubilee Hills: As part of the ‘Children’s Eye Care Week’, LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) hosted an awareness walk to sensitise people regarding the subject from the hospital premises to Jubilee Hills Check Post here on Sunday.

The theme for the week this year is ‘Good Eyesight – Every Child’s Right’. Children from schools across the city participated in the walk, joined by doctors and the public. Beloved cartoon character ‘Chhota Bheem’ was present to cheer the children.

The focus of this year's awareness campaign is on ‘Lazy eye’ and ‘Strabismus’ or squint in the eye and the need for early eye screening and detection amongst children.
“Often children have problem of Lazy eye, where the vision in one eye is weaker than the other or blurred. This usually goes undetected unless the parents take initiative to get the eyes of the child screened,” said Dr Ramesh Kekunnaya, Head, Child Sight Institute, LVPEI.

“If detected early, it can be corrected by making the child put on a patch on the eye with good vision for a few hours every day. This strengthens the vision of the eye with poor vision,” he said.

“Every minute one child goes blind in the world; if we save them we save 33 working years of that person. Two-third of the child blindness is preventable with early detection therefore every new-born should get eye screening. It should be made mandatory at the time of school admission, these measures can bring down the incidence rate,” added Jasti V Ramanamma, Children’s Eye Care Centre, LVPEI.