Amblyopia, If Not Treated Before Age of 7, May Result to Permanent Loss of Vision-DOH

Manila (PNA) — The Department of Health (DOH) has warned that the eye problem known as Amblyopia, when left untreated before the age of seven years, will result to blindness or permanent loss of vision.

“It will be difficult to address Amblyopia once the child reaches the age of seven,” said DOH Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag at the Cecilio Apostol Elementary School in Sta. Cruz, Manila, where he led the distribution on Monday of free eyeglasses to pupils of the school with eye problems.

Amblyopia or lazy eye is a condition wherein there is disorder in sight or abnormal visual development in infancy and early childhood.

“If left untreated before the age of seven, the affected eye will not develop normally and may result to permanent vision loss,” Dr. Tayag stressed as he once more showed his dancing skills while using his hands and pointing toward his eyes as part of his energetic campaign in encouraging the schoolchildren to take good care of their eyes and promote the visual screening program.

“So it is very important that the problem be addressed and the new entrants in school (referring to those in the kinder level and grade 1 (ages 4 to 6) who may have that eye problem will be detected and treated earlier,” the DOH official said.

He added that as part of the agency’s commitment in addressing the public health problem, the DOH has partnered with the Department of Education (DepEd) and Philippine Eye Research Institute (PERI) in a pilot project where public schoolchildren will have access to visual screening and be given corrective solutions.

Part of the collaboration is the training of public school teachers and school nurses on the vision screening by utilizing the Lea Symbols Chart, a tool which is appropriate for the age of schoolchildren or those who are in kinder to Grade 6.

The said vision tool uses symbols familiar to kinder pupils for more accurate screening instead of the usual letters and numbers which are used in common eye screening.

Based on the data of DOH, the prevalence rate of Amblyopia in the country is 1 to 3 percent.

On the other hand, the prevalence rate of Errors of Refraction (EOR) or blurry visions among children (5 to 18 years old) is recorded to be 3-15 percent based on the National Survey of Blindness 2014.

According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report in June 2012, there are approximately 285 million people worldwide who are visually impaired, with 39 million blind and 246 million with low vision.

Globally, uncorrected refractive errors are the main cause of visual impairment, while cataract remains the leading cause of blindness.

The top three causes of visual impairment are uncorrected refractive errors, cataract, and glaucoma.

Vision is one of the most important senses of every human being, according to PERI.

“Most of the visual information through the outside world is incorporated through the visual pathways. Vision problems can limit the ability of a child to learn and to interact with other students that may result to loss of self-esteem,” said Dr. Leo Cubillan, director of PERI.

He added that disability from visual impairment has considerable economic implications such as loss of productivity and income which can lead to social dependency.

Dr. Cubillan explained that through visual screening project, detection of potential problems on the vision of a child is made possible and can contribute to the child’s academic success.

Every year, the month of August is celebrated as Sight Saving Month to remind the public on the importance of proper eye care. (PNA) SCS/LSJ

Image Credit: visionforlifeworks.com