Pediatric Eye Care & ROP ProjectStrengthening Quality Eye Care Services for Children's and Newborns in Bangladesh
Childhood Blindness: Bangladesh is the fifth largest populated country in Asia with a population of over 160 million people, including more than 60 million children under the age of 16. Over 70 percent families live in remote, rural areas with high levels of poverty and limited access to basic eye care services. Using the WHO global estimate of Childhood blindness prevalence of 0.75/1,000 children, there are about 48,000 blind children in Bangladesh. The prevalence of childhood blindness in a rural area of Bangladesh is 6.3 per 10,000 children (0.63/1,000 children). There are 1.3 million children aged 5-15 years, with refractive error at <6/18 visual acuity, at an estimated prevalence of 4% (Urban more than 4.5% and rural around 3%). Â A further 153,600 children have low vision problems, of which an estimated 78,300 cases could be treated or cured with access to proper eye care. As a result, preventable diseases that cause visual impairment and blindness are a serious public health concern throughout the country, particularly when it comes to children and newborns.
Blindness, visual impairment and barriers to accessing eye care services for children and neonates at the rural community has huge negative impact on the country. To address visual impairment and blindness, with Donner Canadian Foundation funding, Orbis Bangladesh, in partnership with the Partners successfully implementing National Childhood Blindness Reduction Program. The project created a sustainable comprehensive model of eye care for children across Bangladesh, delivering high-quality services and raising awareness among patients and their caregivers. Through this project Orbis established ten pediatric centers and provided eye care service to 1.3 million children. Based on this experience and lessons learned over the years, Orbis will expand services for children and neonates to provide comprehensive quality eye care services on cataract, ROP, strabismus, injury etc. The number of referrals and follow up for children living in remote, rural districts has been increased using Out Bound Dialing System (OBD). Data shows that post-operative follow up of pediatric cataract surgery has increased to 60% in 2019 from 48% in 2018. OBD is also contributing to creating awareness on childhood blindness among community people. This will be expanded in other locations to increase follow up rate.
in the project area, many schools are not covered by existing screening programs due to remote and hard to reach location. Scarce and disproportionate distribution of trained human resources and poor adherence to existing guideline hamper quality of care. High rate of poverty, illiteracy, misbeliefs and religious conservatism create barriers to the uptake of health services including eye care. Nationally there are inadequate and absence of systematic referral network in pediatric eye care. Also, there is lack of national forum to monitor quality, training, service standards. The major cause of blindness is Cataract – it tends to occur with age but can also affect the children. The major cause of visual impairment is Uncorrected Refractive Error. Both conditions can affect a child’s education and an adult’s ability to perform skilled work and thereby impacting life and livelihoods of the poorest segment of the population. Visually impaired people are more likely to have to perform menial jobs, impacting household income and individual physical and emotional wellbeing – and reinforcing the cycle of poverty. In rural areas, there are significant barriers to accessing quality eye care services which includes lack of awareness on eye health, shortage of ophthalmologists (only 1,000 for a population of 160 million, of whom the majority are in the major cities), absence of eye care at community level and high costs related to treatment, travel and lost wages.
The control of blindness in children is considered a high priority by Vision 2020 – a global initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness. Because many conditions in children cannot be corrected in adult life, there is an urgency associated with addressing childhood eye diseases that does not necessarily apply to adult conditions. Blindness prevention organizations and institutions all over the developing world are becoming increasingly aware of the magnitude and consequences of childhood blindness, and planning targeted interventions to address it. This project will improve the availability and quality of eye care services for newborns and children by scaling up pediatric eye care capacity and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) screening, treatment and referral services in four partner hospitals. This project will also focus on community-based eye screening and eye health education programs for children and will establish a responsive referral network linking all levels of pediatric eye care service delivery. And thus, this project will reduce avoidable blindness and visual impairment among newborns and children in rural communities of  Rangpur, Sylhet, Chandpur, Gopalganj and neighboring rural districts of Bangladesh.
Child Eye Health
- Organize 150 school screening
- Screen and treat children and premature and LBW babies
Human Resource for eye health
- Provide fellowship to one Ophthalmologist on ROP
- Train 5 ophthalmic personnel including a counselor
- Organize CME for 100 doctors and nurses on ROP and child eye care by using Cybersight platform
Demand Creation
- Observe World Sight Day, International Women’s Day and World Prematurity Day
- Develop and use gender sensitive IEC/BCC materials
- Organize national and local level seminar and media events
Developing Sustainable Eye Care Services and System
- Provide equipment to partners
- Adapt COVID 19 guidelines and secure safe eye care service
- Develop partnership with Neonatal Intensive Care Units
- Identify patients for appropriate treatment and referral services from NICU to eye hospital
- Draft ROP guideline validated and endorsed by experts
- Creation of eye health referral network
For Accessible, Affordable and Quality Eye Care Service please contact with us. You can also support our project and activities for the most vulnerable community of Bangladesh.
Cataract lost my sight and it is difficult to move smoothly without assistance of others, but after operation I am comfortable in continuing my job and I can see everything clearly. So, it removes the burden of life by cataract surgery with support from ANDHERI HILFE
ROP: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is one of the blinding eye conditions that is a rising concern in Bangladesh. It is a disorder that primarily affects premature and low birthweight infants. ROP causes abnormal blood vessels to grow in the retina, leading to scarring of the retina, causing vision loss and ultimately blindness. There are more than 3 million babies born annually in Bangladesh. Of these, 22.6% are low birth weight and 12.5% are pre-term babies. Approximately 400,000 babies are born prematurely, and are at a significantly increased risk of ROP. 70% (or 280,000) of these babies are born in underserved areas outside Bangladesh’s capital city, Dhaka. According to one study in Bangladesh, there is 35% ROP in preterm and premature neonates with a gestational age of 34 weeks or less and a birth weight of 1800 gram or less. Of 13 child eye health facilities established by Orbis, only 4 have ROP services in 4 districts which is inadequate to cover 400, 000 premature babies born annually in Bangladesh. according to a national survey. Screening for ROP remains extremely limited across Bangladesh, so it is widely agreed that the prevalence of the condition is much more severe than these figures indicate.
