By Victor Nwegede, Abakaliki.
Mrs Nwifuru described health care services as the bedrock of a sound society and disclosed that her pet project, Better Health for Rural Children, Women and Internally Displaced Persons BERWO Foundation, worked in collaboration with the DUFUHS management team to facilitate the establishment of the eye centre.
The first lady commended her husband, Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State, whom she said his administration's health-desired spirit has been attracting essential investments and quality services in the health sector.
While commending the former Governor of the state, Senator David Umahi, who founded the university, Mrs Nwifuru said the Eye Ultra-modern Centre would serve as a symbol of the Ebonyi people's desire for quality health care in the state and in the country in general.
In his address, the DUFUHS Vice Chancellor, Professor Jesse Uneke described the Eye Centre as a state-of-the-art of excellence for research, training, and patient care not only in the Southeast but the entire country.
He commended the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND and Ebonyi State government for their support in establishing the centre, saying it would be operating with a multi-disciplinary of experts specializing in conducting research and training on eye eye-related-issues and curring people with eye diseases.
He disclosed that eye conditions have become remarkably common as in his words, those who live long enough would experience at least one eye condition during their lifetime.
He explained: "According to the World Health Organization, globally, at least one billion people have a near or distance vision impairment that could have been prevented or has yet to be addressed.
"In the absence of timely detection, reduced or absent eyesight can have long-term and economic effects. Vision impairment affects people of all ages, with the majority being over the age of 50. Young children with early onset severe vision impairment can experience lower levels of educational achievement, and in adults, it often affects the quality of life through lower productivity, decreased workforce participation and high rates of depression.
"Vision impairment and blindness impact the life of people anywhere. In low and mid-middle-income countries, including Nigeria, the burden of vision impairment can be even greater due to fewer opportunities to access essential eye care services. Cataracts and uncorrected refractive errors are estimated to be the leading causes of vision impairment; however, other causes of vision impairment cannot be ignored.
"Age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, long-standing systemic conditions like diabetes causing diabetic retinopathy, infectious diseases of the eye and trauma to the eye are all equally important causes of vision that need to be addressed.
"In Nigeria, an estimated 24 million people have sight loss. The Nigeria national blindness and visual impairment survey estimates that 4.2 per cent of people over 40 years old are blind. It was also estimated that 4.25 per cent million adults aged 40 years and above have moderate to severe impairment or blindness."
He revealed that blindness was associated with increasing age, being female and poor literacy, noting that a report has it that 84 per cent of blindness was due to avoidable causes, as "many people in Nigeria are unable to access basic eye care, living in increased risk of visual impairment and disability."
He stated that DUFUHS Centre would render different essential services, including research and development in eye diseases, diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases, training of medical and allied health sciences students, the abolishment of mobile eye care units (MECUs), embarking on community outreach and enlargement programmes.
Other roles to be rendered by the centre, according to the Vice Chancellor, included capacity building and training, collaboration and partnership building and hosting of conferences, the establishment of financial assistance programmes (FAPs), counselling and provision of pyspsycho-social port, provision of consultancy services by experienced ophthalmologists, optometrists and biomedical engineers; telemedicine and teleophthalmology, the establishment of the international journal of eye research and other essential dissemination channels.
The DUFUHS Pro-Chancellor, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, expressed joy over the successful flag-off of the eye centre and assured that the federal government would put much effort into taking the institution to greater heights.
