The Chief Nursing Officer, General Hospital, Ijede, CNO Risqat Abdul-Azeez has called on Lagosians to cultivate the habit of regular eye check-up at least twice a year in order to prevent blindness from glaucoma.
Abdul-Azeez, who made the call at an event organised by the facility to commemorate the Year 2021 World Glaucoma Week, stated that regular eye check-up, drug compliance and early diagnosis will help prevent blindness from glaucoma, an eye disease that is irreversible and incurable.
Her words: “There should be a continuous secretion and automatic drainage of the aqueous fluid in the eye but the moment the aqueous fluid is being secreted and there is an obstruction to the drainage channel, glaucoma sets in”.
Stating further that the accumulation of the fluid creates pressure at the back of the optic nerve responsible for relaying information from the retina to the brain, Abdul-Azeez said the ailment makes the patient experience scotopic vision, a condition in which there is a loss of peripheral vision.
She maintained that there is no primary cause of glaucoma but certain factors that could predispose one to it include the congenital factor, heredity, the use of steroid for a long period of time, diabetes, hypertension, old age factor (50 years and above) and certain infections of the eye, among others.
Speaking further, the CNO said constant migraine, hollows, losing the primary vision, seeing flashes of light, a high Intra Ocular Pressure (IOP) and when the cup disc ratio is above 0.5 are some of the symptoms to watch out for.
On her part, the Senior Nursing Officer (SNO), Omolara Akanni, urged Lagosians to imbibe good eye practices like taking green leafy vegetables, oily fish rich in omega 3 and vitamins that will help the vision and sight.
