{"id":5193,"date":"2015-07-02T02:00:28","date_gmt":"2015-07-02T02:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=5193"},"modified":"2015-07-02T02:00:28","modified_gmt":"2015-07-02T02:00:28","slug":"45m-persons-will-go-blind-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=5193","title":{"rendered":"45m persons will go blind 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"eye\"<\/a>President of Nigerian Optometric Association NOA Dr Damian Echendu, has said that no fewer than forty- five million persons will go blind by 2020 globally.<\/p>\n

Echendu stated this at a press briefing held yesterday in Abuja.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cpersons above 40 years should seek eye care to avoid sudden blindness and some avoidable conditions like glaucoma and refractive error.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cMany eye problem don\u2019t come with any sign or symptoms, Some even have trauma which affect their eyes, we also have some cases that many Communities do not have optometrist,\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Echendu said in spite of the contributions of the optometric profession to Nigerians ,it is surprising that the profession was still shortchanged due to man-made obstacles, he called on the Federal Government to include optometry department in public Health Sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp till now, there is no optometry department in both State and Federal Ministries of Health and other tertiary healthcare institutions in Nigeria,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

Echendu said the recent circular by the Ministry for the establishment of optometry unit in Federal Health Institutions was disregarded.<\/p>\n

He said Optometry as a profession, was submerged under Ophthalmology department in Public healthcare institutions not allowing them to practice what they had learnt in the University as provided by law.<\/p>\n

Echendu said the association would be having its 39th Annual General Meeting (AGM) and scientific conference slated for 1st to 4th of July.<\/p>\n

The meeting will also focus on professional reevaluation and renewal of commitment to providing best care for the vision and eye care.<\/p>\n

\u201cActivities that will be of immense benefit to the public among other, free eye and vision screening at Ginshiri community in Abuja<\/p>\n

\u201cAn estimated of 500 persons at Gishiri community in Abuja will benefit from the free eye clinic as they will be given drugs and reading glasses,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President of Nigerian Optometric Association NOA Dr Damian Echendu, has said that no fewer than forty- five million persons will go blind by 2020 globally. Echendu stated this at a press briefing held yesterday in Abuja. He said, \u201cpersons above 40 years should seek eye care to avoid sudden blindness and some avoidable conditions like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-living"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/eye.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-1lL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5195,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5193\/revisions\/5195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}