•They prescribe glasses, not minding underlying diseases –Experts

 

As experts worry over the increasing number of blind people in Nigeria, more people have continued to patronize quack eye clinics. Recent disclosure by the Nigerian Optometric Association, NOA during a conference to mark their 39th Annual General Meeting (AGM) and scientific conference last month, indicates that no fewer than 20 million Nigerians are totally blind and many of this blindness could be blamed on quack eye clinics, the experts disclosed.

 

Investigation by National Mirror revealed that many fake eye clinics have their tentacles burrowed everywhere all over Lagos masquerading under the guise of frame and lens dealers, these business men carry out eye tests, fix lenses and sell frames.

 

From Awolowo way and Olowu street Ikeja, through Pen Cinema Agege motor way to their arrays of shops in Lagos Island, especially Broad Street, they are everywhere, sometimes beckoning on passersby to patronise their wares.

 

This reporter while undercover paid a visit to one of these quacks at Olowu Street Ikeja and had a chat with the operative Mr. Sunday who is just a standard six holder. According to him, he learnt how to operate the trial lens set while serving his master five years back. He thereafter bought his own eye test kit with twelve thousand Naira at Lagos Island and started his own eye test business as well as lens fixing.

 

Chatting away excitedly, Sunday proudly boasted that the business is a secret gold mine. Anyone with eye defect who comes to them and have their eye problem detected and corrected, will not only keep patronizing them but will also refer friends and family to them.

 

The bothering concern is why anyone would hand over their precious eyes so cheaply to be examined by a quack instead of going to the rightful qualified and licensed operatives known as Optometrists.

 

The reason is not farfetched; top on the list is the exorbitant amount charged by the private clinics for eye checks and prescription. Some clinics charge as high as twenty five to fifty thousand Naira for eye examination and lenses whereas these quacks do same for three to six thousand maximum.  Another reason people go to quacks is their availability and easy accessibility unlike some government hospital were people have to cue from morning till evening for eye check.

 

Bur experts say eye examination and prescription of lenses should be carried out only by the Optometrists at the primary level. Optometrist’s duties include: examining the internal and external structures of the eyes to diagnose eye diseases such as glaucoma, cataracts, retinal disorders, systemic diseases, including hypertension and diabetes; vision conditions such as near-sightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and presbyopia. They also perform tests to determine the patient’s ability to focus and coordinate the eyes, and to judge depth and see colors accurately.

 

 

Optometrists prescribe eyeglasses and contact lenses, low vision aids, vision therapy, and medications to treat eye diseases. They are the ones who refer patients to Ophthalmologists or Opticians for more advanced and complex treatment or for surgical procedures if required.

 

However, these optometrists are almost none existence at some of the primary health care facilities in Nigeria. Investigation revealed that most PHC’s in Lagos and other cities do not have optometrists. Some of these health centers at times manage a student optometrist for their centre while others do not even bother at all. One of such corp member serving at Ikeja health centre (name withheld) told National Mirror that the centre did not have its own facility for optometrists. She had to bring her own trial test kit with her when she started. Being the only eye care giver in the centre, she usually has a busy schedule from morning till evening.

 

However, moving up the ladder to General Hospitals and Teaching hospitals is where few optometrists are absorbed, leaving majority of them scattered in private clinics.

 

In a chat with one optometrist in private practice, Dr Ehimare Asabi working at Vision Care Optical Clinic Ikeja, the young doctor complained bitterly about how the quacks have usurped them. “Awareness is one of the greatest challenge we face in the practice; people are not aware that they are supposed to check their sights from time to time and so many do not know the right people to meet for their eye examination; some go to the general medical practitioners while majority patronize the quacks especially those people selling glasses on the street”.

 

Dr Ehimare pointed out that government needs to absorb more optometrists in government hospitals. According to him, government establishments are biased as they take few optometrists and more of other health professions particularly medical doctors. The government needs to balance this scale; they should work with the board of optometrists in ensuring that more space is allocated to optometrists in general hospitals and primary health care centers because that is where you find few number of optometrists, sometimes non existence”.

 

Speaking more on the issue of quacks, the doctor said: “these quacks just prescribe lens for people without knowing if there are some underlying disease condition behind the eye problem. Conditions such as Glaucoma cannot be dictated by a quack, many other conditions cannot be detected by a quack. Correcting the sight without treating the underlying cause will lead to the situation worsening and eventual blindness. What they do is trial and error…”

 

Dr Ehimare appealed to the government to wake up and fight harder to ensure that these quacks are put out of business. He said that most people get blind from preventable causes such as; not going for checkups or going to the wrong places for checkups. Some just sit at home believing that things will get better or applying one native medicine thereby worsening their situation.

 

According to a survey carried out by The Nigeria national blindness and visual impairment study group, over 1,000,000 adults in Nigeria are blind and another 3,000,000 are visually impaired. Dr Ehimare says Quacks are to blamed for some of this blindness.

 

By National Mirror