Sankara Eye Hospital in association with Desire Society, a home for HIV/AIDS affected children in Bengaluru organized a free eye care programme, to extend support for over 30 HIV positive children.

Eye manifestations in those who are HIV positive is common. This could range from infections to life threatening tumours. Due to reduced immunity they are also prone for opportunistic infections. Fortunately, many of these infections are now treatable with therapeutic agents. It is important to recognize these infections early so that appropriate therapy can be instituted.

According to  Dr. Kaushik Murali, Paediatric Ophthalmologist, Sankara Eye Hospital, Bengaluru ocular lesions attributable to HIV are thought to be seen in up to 2/3rd of the estimated 2.5 million HIV-positive populations in India at some point in their lifetime. In India, patients infected with HIV do not undergo routine ophthalmic evaluation. They are often referred for ophthalmic examination only if they present with visual complaints.

“We thought the best  way to commemorate World Aids Day observed on December 1 annually  was to provide non-discriminatory eye care accessible to these children,” he added.

“The social stigma attached to HIV-AIDS makes those living with this condition the most neglected group. Desire Society aims to improve the lives of children struggling with the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We would like to thank Sankara Eye Hospital for this initiative to provide eye care to this ignored section of our society”, said, Subhash E M, vice president, Desire Society.

Sankara Eye Hospital, Bengaluru is a 225 bedded specialty eye hospital inaugurated in March 2008. The hospital has performed over 70000 vision restoring surgeries since inception. It  provides comprehensive diagnostic, curative and rehabilitative care for all eye ailments. It  is also a training institute for ophthalmologists and optometrists. The department of cornea offer advanced care to patients with corneal diseases including LASIK (Laser Vision Correction), Keratoplasty (Corneal Transplants) and treatment for conditions such as Keratoconus (Collagen Crosslinking). Sankara Eye Bank is a member of the Eye Bank Association of India.

The Nanna Kannu Comprehensive Eye Care Programme for Children was  launched by Sankara Eye Care Institutions India with Sightsavers International and the Government of Karnataka to provide high quality surgical and rehabilitative care to the children of Karnataka, India.

The  comprehensive eye care delivery aims to ensure that no child should be needlessly blind and those with irreversible blindness or low vision should have the same rights and access to services as their sighted counterparts. Over 2,30,000 children have benefitted from this programme.