A United States based Ghanaian eye doctor, Dr. Oteng Gyang has called for the improvement of eye care services in the country and Africa. Speaking at the African Optometry Conference at the Novotel, last Saturday, Dr. Gyang said millions of Ghanaians have never had an eye exam in their lives. He attributed this poor state of affairs to the insufficiency of eye doctors in the country.
"There is less than one eye doctor per million people in Africa as opposed to one for every 5000 people in the US. The situation is so bad that in the developing world that blindness is increasing at the rate of two million per year," he said.
Dr. Gyang attributed the causes of blindness to cataracts, onchocersiasis, trachoma, glaucoma and vitamin A deficiency. "Sadly though," he explained, "75% of these cases of blindness are avoidable." These cases of blindness as well as refractive problems like shortsightedness and astigmatism, and presbyopia, which result in poor vision, also impact our economies adversely.
For how can our children perform well in school if they cannot see the blackboard or the writing in their books? Or how can we expect our drivers to drive safely when they cannot see the road?
He admitted that though carelessness and lack of proper education played a part, the majority of road accidents in Ghana could be due to visual problems.
Dr. Oteng Gyang called on the government to train more eye doctors and eye surgeons by increasing the intake of students at the School of Optometry at the Kumasi Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
To help government's efforts, Dr. Oteng Gyang, revealed that he and a team of eye doctors from Atlanta in the USA will be establishing a number of eye clinics in the country soon. Plans are well underway for the first of these eye clinics to be opened in Accra next year.
