Registered Medical Practitioners (RMPs), physicians and other healthcare workers in the districts and other parts of the rural areas in India are least aware of the risk of retinoblastoma cancer in eye. It is high time that awareness programmes about retinoblastoma and eye related problems should be propagated at a large scale at different levels viz., common public, parents with hereditary history and pediatricians, across the country, informed eye care specialists from Center for Sight (CS) and National Retinoblastoma Foundation in Hyderabad.
According to Dr Santosh G Honavar, director medical services at Centre for Sight, India has the highest number of retinoblastoma affected children in the world, with about 1500 new cases reported each year.
Retinoblastoma is the most common and life-threatening eye cancer in very young children between the age group 0-4 years. If not detected early and neglected, it may even result in removal of the eye. A white reflex seen in the eye while clicking a photograph can easily help any one to determine retinoblastoma cancer in the eye. Majority of the cases are seen in the rural areas where local healthcare workers are not aware or well trained to determine the disease.
In view of this, the specialists at CS and National Retinoblastoma Foundation and department of ocular oncology are planning a long term awareness programme in the coming days where the healthcare workers, RMPs and also district-level health workers will be trained to identify the disease.
As a part of this awareness programme, ophthalmologists are observing World Retinoblastoma awareness week from 11 to 15th May 2014 across the state.
According to the doctors, the symptoms of the disease can be observed if a child has crossed or squint eyes, constant swelling in the eye, continuous watering and also rapid loss of vision. in such cases parents must get the eyes checked with an ophthalmologist.
Where there is no access to an ophthalmologist, people are dependent on healthcare workers and some of them have no idea that cancer can also occur in the eyes.
“We find so many patients coming in at the last stage when the cancer from the eye has spread to the brain. Or it has grown too large in the eye. If detected early it can be cured. But we find patients complaining that they went to health professional but were given drops and medicines and told that it would be fine,” says Dr Vijay Anand Reddy, eye care specialist from Apollo Hospital.
For this reason a conglomerate of health workers from the state are being educated about the shiny white reflex in the eye which is the most distinct and easy way to identify it. The healthcare workers are being told about the easiest method, of photographing, where the white reflex shows easily.
Early identification, when the white reflex is small, helps to cure the cancer faster and also does not allow it to spread.