The Chief Medical Director (CMD), National Eye Centre, Kaduna, Dr. Godwin O. Adejor has warned that that unless there was a radical improvement in cataract awareness in the country, more than 600,000 Nigerians may have to undergo the operation by the year 2020.
Speaking in Kaduna on the occasion of the World Sight Day celebration (WSD) which was organised by the centre, Dr. Adejor noted that the figure was expected to outnumber the 400,000 Nigerians operated of cataract about seven years ago.
He however, said that the National Eye Centre was able to render free cataract surgery for 512 patients during “Goodluck Operation Restore Sight”, a Presidential initiative to improve the number of cataract surgeries in the country.
According to him, in order to usher in universal eye health, there was the need to train more eye care professionals such as ophthalmologists, optometrists, ophthalmic nurses and optical dispensing technicians among others.
“ I want to advocate for the provision of comprehensive eye care services and integrate them into existing health systems as well as identify and eliminate social and economic obstacles especially for the poor and the marginalised.”, he said.
He said: “In Nigeria, according to the results of the National Blindness Survey conducted from 2005-2007, the prevalence of blindness in people who were aged 40 years and older was 42% and 0.78% in all ages. According to this study, 84% of blindness in Nigeria was due to avoidable causes of which cataract constitutes 43%. The number of operable cataract in Nigeria then was estimated at 400,000,
which is expected to increase by 43% (600,000) in 2020 if cataract surgical coverage of the country remains unchanged.
“It is heart-warming to learn that the National Eye Centre was able to render free cataract surgery for 512 patients during “Goodluck Operation Restore Sight” which is a Presidential Initiative to improve the Cataract Surgical Rate of the number of cataract surgeries per million per year) of the country.
“A brief statistical data is a necessary panacea to understanding of burden of blindness / visual impairment. According to the recent available data, approximately 285 million people worldwide live with low vision and blindness. Of these, 39 million, 37 – 40 people are blind and 246 million have moderate – severe impairment. 90% of the blind people live in low – income countries. It is also known that 80% of visual impairment is avoidable.
“Although the number of people blind from infectious causes has greatly reduced in the past 20 years among the high – income countries, these causes are still very significant in the low – income countries of the world. It is estimated that 19 million children worldwide, are visually impaired”.

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