Orbis International US has partnered with the West Lion's Super-Speciality Eye Hospital, Bangalore for a collaborative project titled 'Makkala Nethra Jyothi' to combat and prevent avoidable childhood blindness.

Under this four-year project, the state will also see the establishment of a modern and well equipped Department of Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus in the hospital. Through this department and its outreach programme, five districts, namely Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural, Kolar, Hassan, and Chamarajanagar are included.

The project, a first-of-its-kind has been initiated by the State Government only because the state has the highest number of people suffering from avoidable blindness in the country, said Karnataka minister for health and family welfare, R Ashok. Almost 2 crore out 5.5 crore population in the state can be screened under the project in one year. Training will be initiated for clinical and non-clinical staff. A vision centre will be set up, mothers/guardians will be educated in primary eye care and people will be informed through media and Information Education and Communication (IEC), he added.

The project which was launched early this year was formally launched by the State health minister. In the last two months, the super speciality eye hospital has so far screened 27,792 school children, treated 4,085 children with varying paediatric eye diseases and performed 258 eye surgeries. As many as155 of these were undergone vision restoration surgeries. Under the project, students of blind schools in the state are also being examined.

As a not-for-profit global development organisation, Orbis with its mission to preserve and restore eye sight by strengthening the capacity of local partners in their attempt to prevent and treat avoidable blindness has initiated since 2000, 17 child friendly paediatric eye care centres in India in addition to its activities in Ethiopia, China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Bulgaria and Pakistan.

According to Orbis officials, around 1.1 percent of the population worldwide suffer from avoidable blindness and out of this about 12 million constitute the Indian blind population. There is a visible shortage for ophthalmologists which at present is pegged at 12,000 and a majority of them are in the urban areas. The Orbis officials further stated that 50 percent of blindness is preventable or treatable but there is lack of trained paediatric ophthalmologists and lack of equipment to diagnose the eye problems in early stages.

Currently, out of the country's 900 hospitals, only 10 have paediatric ophthalmic units and there are only 150 paediatric ophthalmologists. Some of the major causes of blindness among children are corneal scarring due to vitamin A deficiency, measles, use harmful traditional medicines, whole globe lesions, cortical visual impairment, retinopathy of pre-maturity (ROP), and optic nerve hypoplasia in addition to general and treatable abnormalities like cataract and glaucoma. Another reasons is a condition known as Strabismus squint.

Among the short-term prevention of blindness includes methods like distribution of vitamin A tablets and proper oxygen regulation in incubators. In order, to treat ROP, cataract and glaucoma, it is imperative that children's eye care services are readily available and that more doctors are trained in the subspecialty of paediatric ophthalmology, stated Orbis officials.