Blindness in Ghana
Ghana, like many nations, has a clear divide between those who are wealthy and those who live in poverty. Many Ghanaians live in conditions where they do not have access to healthcare or the resources to assist them out of the cycle of poverty.
The lack of accessibility to healthcare can often push those suffering further into economic crises. Over the last few weeks, many experts and healthcare professionals have been discussing the situation in their nations and across the world.
Some of the more recent findings date back to 2011 when the former head of the GHS (Ghana Health Service) Eyecare Unit, spoke about how crucial it was that eyecare been seen as a public health and socioeconomic issue.
As of 2021, the GHS stated that 227,920 Ghanaians were blind. Of that population, over half of those (54.8%) were blind due to cataracts. The data from the GHS also shows that the prevalence of blindness in Ghana was much higher in rural areas compared to those who live in urbanised areas. This is due to a lack of advancements in those areas. Many rural areas are positioned a great distance from urbanised areas, meaning that there is a struggle to reach places such as hospitals.
It has also been shown that 155,992 Ghanaians live in areas with little to no access to quality eye care services, meaning that they remain suffering needlessly. For this to change, organisations need to intervene and assist in creating a positive change. Whilst many, such as the late Dr Oscar Amfari Debrah, recognised that the loss of sight and visual impairments is a distinct cause of poverty and a significant public health issue, there is little than can be achieved, especially in developing nations. Dr Debrah also went on to discuss the fact that there are merely 54 eyecare specialists in the country with the majority of them working in areas such as Accra and Kumasi.
More recently, the head of the eyecare unit of the GHS, Dr James Addy, stated that out of the 30,800,000 population 329,560 Ghanaians had severe visual impairment while 579,040 had moderate impairment. He went on to note that several issues causing blindness in Ghana are avoidable and that regular eye screening needed to be encouraged to prevent further issues from happening.
Adding to Dr Addy’s points, Dr Anthony Ofosu Adofo, the Deputy Director-General, GHS also shared that more effort should be geared towards the prevention and protection of the eye.
He expanded on this by explaining the need for Ghanaians to adopt healthier lifestyles by reducing smoking and maintaining normal blood sugar, pressure and cholesterol levels. He also said that the use of eye protection such as sunglasses and other lenses such as blue light glasses when exposed to screens and the sun.
The lack of resources and infrastructure are clearly missing and Ghana, among other nations, needs the support and correct resources to be able to create a sustainable and sufficient method to cure and prevent blindness.
There are a variety of other countries much like Ghana that do not have the vital resources needed to cure needless blindness. It’s important to fund and have organisations with adequate resources as they’ll have the ability to create change, ensuring people get the support they need as it is only ever going to have a positive impact.
In a world where we take much for granted, let’s not allow sight to be one of those.