Date: 2018-03-19

An Ophthalmologist, Doctor Taoheed Abdullahi has called on all tiers of government to introduce and integrate the study of glaucoma at the primary and secondary Schools levels so as to sensitize the youths in particular about the eye disease.

According to him , such study needed to be included much earlier in the school curriculum.

Doctor Taoheed made the call in Ilorin , the KWARA state capital while answering questions on a Radio KWARA health programme , tagged "Health Half Hour" .

The Ophthalmologist who works at the Sobi Specialist Hospital, Ilorin lamented that the burden of glaucoma is not well felt , well known and well addressed by the government and members of the public like other diseases such as HIV but described the eye disease as a silent invisible killer which easily leads to blindness hence needed maximum sensitization .

He commended the Kwara state government for providing conducive environment during the recently concluded world wide glaucoma week which also took place in the state capital and called on Non Governmental Organisations (NGO's) to support in enlightening members of the public about the disease and provision of logistic support and transportation .

Doctor Taoheed therefore stressed the need for Nigerians to check their eyes regularly or at most yearly to know the status of their sights to guide against having the glaucoma which could lead to irreversible blindness if not quickly discovered.

According to him , during the recent glaucoma week held in the state, two hundred and sixty eyes of patients were treated within four hours, ten eyes were confirmed to have the disease while fifty six eyes were suspected to have glaucoma .

He added that it was also discovered that some patients have cataract and are ignorant about it as well as other eye challenges and disclosed that stakeholders and experts across the world are not relenting in finding solutions and early discovery to the eye problem.