Most blindness in Africa is avoidable: cataract, uncorrected long or short sight, glaucoma and infection account for the great majority. Cataract is operable, refractive error is a pair of glasses, and glaucoma is only preventable if it is found before the sight has gone.
Get eyes checked if
- Sight is blurred, near or far, or a child sits very close to the screen or squints at the board.
- You are over 40 and have never had a check.
- A parent, brother or sister has glaucoma. It runs in families, and it is more common and more aggressive in people of African descent.
- You have diabetes: every year, without waiting for symptoms.
- Night vision is getting worse, or lights have halos around them.
Go the same day if
- Sudden loss of vision in one or both eyes, even if it comes back.
- Sudden severe eye pain, with a red eye, headache and vomiting. This can be acute glaucoma and sight is lost within hours.
- A curtain or shadow coming across the vision, or a sudden shower of floaters and flashes.
- An injury to the eye, or a chemical splash. Rinse with clean water for twenty minutes on the way.
- A red eye with pus in a newborn.
- Double vision that comes on suddenly, especially with weakness or slurred speech.
Glaucoma, specifically
Glaucoma destroys the side vision first and silently. By the time a person notices, much of it is permanently gone. It cannot be recovered, only stopped where it is. That is why a pressure check after 40, and earlier if it is in the family, is worth the trip: the whole value of the test is catching it before there is anything to feel.
Everyday protection
- Wear eye protection for welding, grinding, cutting and farm work. Most eye injuries here are work injuries.
- Do not look at welding arcs, even briefly.
- Wash hands before touching eyes; eye infections spread on hands and shared cloths.
- Do not share towels, face cloths or eye cosmetics.
- Sunglasses that block UV help over years.
- Control blood pressure and blood sugar. Both damage the retina.
Never do these
- Do not put breast milk, urine, herbal juice, sugar or leaves in an eye. These are common and they cause corneal damage and blindness.
- Do not use a steroid eye drop without a clinician. It can destroy sight in an infected eye.
- Do not rub an eye with something in it, and do not try to remove anything embedded.
- Do not treat a painful red eye with leftover drops from a previous illness.
Glasses and cataract
Uncorrected sight is the commonest cause of visual impairment and it is fixed with glasses. Cataract is the commonest cause of blindness and is fixed with an operation that takes under an hour; outreach campaigns run periodically and are often free or subsidised. Neither is a condition to accept as part of getting older.
