PERI conducts visual screening of Ilocos Norte kids

By Leilanie G. Adriano

Staff Reporter

Laoag City—In an effort to promote healthy eyes and to prevent blindness, the Philippine Eye Research Institute (PERI) conducted visual screening among Ilocos Norte children aged seven and below.

Dr. Leo Cubillan, PERI director, said, “Childhood blindness can be prevented if only highly specialized services that are needed to diagnose and treat it is readily available especially in rural areas.”

A study of the University of the Philippines Manila-National Institute of Health shows that every year, about 531 Filipino children will go blind due to Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), an important and emerging cause of childhood blindness in the Philippines. If left untreated, ROP can cause variable degree of visual loss and can lead to complications.

Aware of this situation, Rep. Imelda R. Marcos (Ilocos Norte, 2^nd district) invited PERI doctors and nurses to visit Ilocos Norte and conduct vision screening training workshop for Ilocos Norte nurses, particularly school nurses assigned in the province’s second district to detect what is known as “lazy eye” or where one eye is not functioning well.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines childhood blindness as a group of conditions occurring in childhood, which could result in blindness of severe visual impairment, and are unlikely to be untreatable later in life. It was caused by malaria, ophthalmia neonatorum, vitamin A deficiency, ROP cataract, lack of facilities, and malnutrition.

As one of PERI’s pilot projects of in cooperation with the congressional office of Mrs. Marcos, a training program will be institutionalized in the province to conduct outreach program among Ilocos children seven years old and below.

Along with the actual visual screening of entry children at the Mariano Marcos Memorial Elementary School Grade I pupils, PERI led by Dr. Cubillan likewise donated at least 11 units of vision screening kits for use in Mothering Centers located in the 11 municipalities and one city in Ilocos Norte’s second district.

Established in 1965 by of Republic Act No. 4593, PERI, being the center for the advancement of ophthalmology in the country was committed to reduce blindness through research directed toward the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of eye diseases.

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