Year-round Glaucoma clinic, advocacy mark Ilonggo eye docs’ support to World Glaucoma Day
Sustained advocacy and year-round conduct of Glaucoma clinic here go full circle as Ilonggo eye care professionals throughout Western Visayas (WV) region mark today’s “World Glaucoma Day.”
Unified in its campaign to raise awareness of what has been dubbed as “Sneak Thief” of sight, eye specialists of the Philippine Academy of Ophthalmology (PAO) WV chapter once again banded for the cause.
As such, free glaucoma screening and a lecture forum for government health workers will be held at the Western Visayas Medical Center Eye Center in Mandurriao, Iloilo City.
“This is to underscore the importance of the key message “glaucoma can blind you – get your eyes tested,” the PAO-WV in a news release sent to The News Today (TNT) went. “Taking responsibility for their eye health has to start with the health workers themselves who are at the front line of any health care initiative. They can’t be expected to bring this message to their communities if they have not benefited from the recommendation and or if they are not fully aware of the same.”
The region’s move is under the Sama-sama ta program of eye doctors in Iloilo and Guimaras committed on its “our community, our responsibility” battlecry.
To note, there has since been the creation of the Local Sight Preservation Committee (LCSP), an offshoot of the implementation of Vision 2020: The Right to Sight program of the World Health Organization (WHO).
“All eye specialists under the PAO-LCSP are committed to the task of sustaining implementation of the eye care program for Iloilo-Guimaras and have adopted the catch phrase, “Sama-sama ta” to highlight the collaboration and partnership between all stakeholders on two provinces (sama-sama) as well as subtly sound off two other key words of the program: masa (grassroots- the poor/underprivileged being the primary target beneficiaries) and mata (eye – the organ of sight),” the news release continued.
Dr. Cynthia Salcedo is the current chairperson of the LCSP for Iloilo and Guimaras. Salcedo is also the PAO-WV vice president for Panay Sector and chair of the WVMC Department of Ophthalmology. The WVMC Eye Center has been the program’s official hub and facility.
PAO – WV chair Dr. Mary Katherine Rivera Francia in her message re-emphasized the “universal importance” of early detection. This, as Francia sought for the support of government officials in recognizing the importance of World Glaucoma Day.
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases characterized by damage to the optic nerve. Diagnosis is through routine visits to an eye care professional with complete eye examination.
World Glaucoma Day is a global initiative to raise awareness on the disease which ranks second leading cause of blindness in the United States and worldwide.