Lagos to designate general hospital as eye center

Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, says the state government will designate one of its general hospitals as an eye specialist centre to improve care for patients with eye diseases.

Abayomi said this during the fourth annual general meeting and scientific conference of the Africa Retina Society on Thursday in Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event was themed “Improving Retina Services in a Resource Constrained Economy.”

Mr. Abayomi said the centre will provide world-class diagnostic, medical, surgical and ophthalmic services in Lagos and Nigeria.

He stressed that the state will prioritize eye health and noted that the state was working on developing the screening capacity of all its primary health care centers to detect eye diseases early.

“The conditions that affect the eyes largely reflect the conditions of the community in which you live. HIV, for example, was a major issue in South Africa and I certainly experienced the impact of HIV on our everyday medicine and practice.

“Here in Nigeria we have other things. We have hypertension, diabetes, sickle cell anemia and many traumas. This is the kind of thing we see in our clinics here in Lagos and in Nigeria.

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“We need to be able to understand how these prevailing conditions really affect us,” he said.

The commissioner also said that efforts are being made to promote eye screening, especially in schools, starting with training teachers to detect students with vision problems.

He added that the State will take advantage of social health insurance to detect and treat eye diseases when patients go to health centers.

The commissioner further said that the state would strengthen public awareness and understanding of eye health, especially glaucoma and visual acuity.

Abayomi revealed that the state, through its Ministry of Health, had forged a partnership with the Chagoury Group to develop a specialist eye hospital in Lagos to boost access to eye services.

He acknowledged that ophthalmology requires intensive use of equipment and stressed that the government will pay attention to that and human resources to allow professionals to carry out appropriate diagnoses and treatments to reverse medical tourism.

Previously, the head of the Division of Ophthalmology at Stellenbosch University (South Africa), Linda Visser, called on policymakers to formulate policies that integrate eye examinations into diabetes care from the primary health care level, noting that cases of diabetic retinopathy were increasing among Africans. .

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a chronic progressive disease of the retinal capillaries (small blood vessels) associated with prolonged elevated blood glucose levels in people with diabetes.

Ms Visser cited data from the International Diabetes Foundation showing that 537 million adults aged 20 to 79 are living with diabetes worldwide, a figure projected to rise to 1.3 billion within 50 years.

“The high prevalence of type 2 diabetes continues to increase worldwide and is particularly rapid in low- and middle-income countries.

“Most of these countries have limited availability and affordability of health care services to detect and treat diabetes-related complications, such as retinopathy, to prevent vision loss.”

According to her, all people with diabetes are at risk of developing DR, however, those with poor blood glucose and blood pressure control and hyperlipidemia are most at risk.

Ms Visser, former president of the Vitreo-Retinal Society of South Africa, emphasized that early detection would lead to timely treatment of DR, which could prevent 95 per cent of cases of visual impairment and blindness.

Additionally, Asiwome Seneadza, President of the Africa Retina Society, said the topic was timely and critical as efforts are made to navigate the complexities and challenges of providing advanced retinal care across the continent.

Mr Seneadza said: “That is why we are advocating for better diabetes care and regular retinal screenings that are available and accessible to all people living with diabetes.”

Similarly, Bassey Fiebai, President of the Vitreo-Retinal Society of Nigeria, said the meeting was critical to proposing solutions to the challenges of delivering standard retinal care, improving outcomes and reducing visual loss from retina-related disorders among low- and middle-income countries.

Mr Fiebai said the government plays a key role in providing funding, staff training and equipment to improve the detection and treatment of retinopathy.

The professor noted that retina specialists are few in Nigeria, putting the number at around 100, and stressed that the current system is inadequate to cater to the large population requiring eye care.

“Right now, we have just over 100 retina specialists in the country. And we know that the population of Nigeria is about 230 million.

“We are faced with a situation where a retina specialist should be looking after 2.3 million people. How does anyone manage that?” she asked.

NAN reports that the African Retina Society Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference, which began on June 26 and ended on June 28, saw participants from several African countries exchange ideas on how to improve retinal care.

(YAYA)