Sightsavers trains Plateau health workers to tackle ‘diabetes retinopathy’

Sightsavers, an NGO, has organised a two-day training for nurses and other health workers towards tackling ‘Diabetes Retinopathy’ in Plateau.

The report states that diabetes retinopathy is an eye condition that leads to vision loss and blindness in diabetic patients.

The condition largely affects blood vessels in the retina, which is the light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eye.

The two-day training is currently ongoing in Jos.

Speaking on the exercise, Dr Joshua Ibenu, Sightsavers Programme Lead in Plateau, said that the initiative was part of the ongoing Comprehensive Eye Health Programme for the state.

Ibenu added that the exercise aimed at training the participants on the use of fundus camera in dictating retinopathy in diabetic patients.

He said that the training, a pilot phase, had participants from secondary health facility in Shendam Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.

He also said that the initiative aimed at ensuring early dictation of retinopathy, particularly at the primary and secondary health facilities.

“Currently, Sightsavers has been in partnership with Plateau government to improve eye care for its citizens; this is our fourth year, and this is the second phase of our project.

“For this particular exercise, we are here to do a diabetes retinopathy training for ophthalmic nurses from general hospitals, and this training is targeted at reducing the effect of retinopathy through community level and secondary level screening.

“So the nurses are being trained on how to use a fundus camera, which is a new technology, to do secondary level screening, and once those screenings are done, the patients can be referred to tertiary hospitals like the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) for proper care.

“So, what we are trying to do is to ensure that we have treatments at secondary level and at rural centers, where once people are screened, the doctor at the tertiary level is able to confirm and say this is the issue, and then the nurse can refer.

“Basically, we are supporting the Plateau government to ensure that we downscale some of these services to where it is most relevant,”he said.

Also speaking, Dr Nazaradeen Ibrahim, Sightsavers’ Senior Global Technical Lead for Eye Health supporting Africa, said that over 30 per cent of diabetic patients in Nigeria have retinopathy.

Ibrahim, who described diabetes as the “silent killer”of the eye, called for urgent steps towards tackling the menace.

“A lot of people do not know they have diabetes retinopathy, especially in the rural areas.

“So, this training is really very important for us as an organisation, and also for the general population, because the incidence of non-communicable diseases is increasing, and so is diabetes.

“Since we support eye health and support countries and programmes in ensuring that we reduce the burden of blindness and visual impairment, we see that diabetes can actually be a silent killer of the eye.

“It can affect the eye and cause visual impairment and even blindness, so we felt there should be an approach or an initiative that will contribute to identifying cases of that complication as a result of diabetes,”he said.

Dr Noami Sale, an ophthalmologist with JUTH, explained that people suffering from diabetes for up to five years were at risk of developing retinopathy.

Sale, a facilitator at the training, advised diabetic patients to regularly go for eye check in order to prevent getting blind.

She, however, decried the rising cases of diabetes particularly among young people, attributing it to lifestyle, diet and other unhealthy practices.