Children missing out on vital eye exams

Supporting children like Sneha

To mark National Eye Health week (20-26 September) international eyecare charity Orbis UK is calling on parents to book eye examinations for their children – but warns that children in low-to-middle income countries are most at risk of debilitating sight loss.

A recent poll commissioned by the charity reveals the impact of the pandemic on children’s eyesight in across Britain. It found that seven in 10 respondents were not aware that children should have an eye test at four to five years years of age, as recommended by the NHS, and half of all parents with a child under 18 were not aware of this.

The YouGov poll of 2,025 adults across Britain, 373 of them parents with children under 18 years of age, revealed that 54 per cent of parents admitted they had not attempted to book an appointment for their children since the pandemic, while 24 per cent were not sure if their child’s eyesight had got worse in this time.

The poll commemorates the two-year anniversary of the Orbis See My Future UK Aid Match appeal, which works to fight avoidable blindness amongst children in Nepal. The Orbis REACH (Refractive Error Among Children) initiative, partially funded by the UK government through UK Aid Match, works in the remote areas of Parsa and Siraha in Southeast Nepal. Eye health workers screen and treat children with vision loss, enabling them to continue to attend school and look forward to a brighter future. Children like 12-year-old Sneha (pictured) who struggled to read the blackboard and resorted to copying her friends’ notes so she could keep up in class. Orbis supported her with a screening including an eye test and glasses. She can now see properly and hopes to become a bank manager when she is older.

Larry Benjamin, Orbis medical volunteer and retired consultant ophthalmologist, said: “The pandemic has been a challenge for all of us and it’s understandable parents have avoided health visits. But with so many children in Britain not seeing an optician, it is important that parents try to book eye tests for their children where possible.

“And for children living in parts of the world with little or no access to eyecare, the challenges brought about by the pandemic are particularly worrying. Globally, children and adults have missed routine eye exams, and people are avoiding visits to eye health centres as they fear contracting the virus. It’s vital that Orbis reaches as many people as possible, to ensure more children and families can hope for a better future.”

Rebecca Cronin, chief executive of Orbis UK, said: “Like NHS and High Street eyecare teams, our eye health partners around the world have risen to the challenges brought about by the pandemic, delivering eye care in remote parts of the world and adhering to local guidelines to ensure patient safety. But millions of people, especially children, are not getting the timely treatment they need. In many areas of the world where Orbis works, undiagnosed sight loss can have devastating consequences, plunging families into poverty.

“Even before the pandemic, the need for specialist eye doctors was already outpacing the numbers of trained experts in ophthalmic care. With 50% of those surveyed expressing concern about this, it’s clear the work of Orbis is more vital than ever and your support critical to the fight against avoidable blindness.”

The See My Future Appeal in 2019 raised almost £1.4m pounds for the REACH project, this included over £650,000 of match funding from the UK government. The funds have enabled over 71,639 children to have eye screenings, reached 213 schools and delivered treatments and training for eye health workers so they can identify vision issues.

With schools closed for much of 2020 the project adapted, working with local female community health volunteers to deliver house to house screenings. As a result, 1,000 more children, who do not normally attend school and would otherwise not be screened, had their eyes tested for the first time.