Can increasing number of myopia be checked?

 It is now being said that Ghana faces a growing number of cases of myopia, otherwise known as near-sight­edness, among its children.(See story on back page).

Generally, it is not strange to see children suffering myopia because this is a condition commonly diagnosed among children and carry it into adult­hood.

It is said to affect preschool children, about nine school-aged children and adolescents. The condition can worsen in early childhood but tends to level off by the end of teen years

However, our concerns relate to the growing number in the face of the fact that the condi­tion can be treated but cannot permanently go away.

It is also unfortunate that the condition has something to do with one’s ethnicity and family.

Ethnic differences in the prevalence of myopia are largely accounted for by axial lengths.

The axial length of the eye is the measurement from front to back – measured from the front surface of the cornea (the clear window over the coloured iris of the eye) right through to the back curve of the eye underly­ing the retina (the light sensitive layer at the back of the eye).

A research has found that the prevalence of myopia was 25.2 per cent among South Asian children, 10 per cent among black African Caribbean and 3.4 per cent among white Europe­an children.

Simply put, the South Asian and black African Caribbe­an children have longer axial lengths than the European counterparts, which more predispose the non-Europeans to myopia.

It is also sad to hear that children whose parents, (even one of them) suffer short-sight­edness are more likely to suffer the condition.

It is more worrying that in that situation the condition cannot be prevented but we should be careful with the envi­ronmental causes of using the eyes a lot for close-up work like reading or spending a great deal of time on screens like those of the computer and mobile phone.

This is where the problem lies, especially for the fact that most parents themselves use the screens a lot and children imitate them.

The situation has forced most parents, particularly those in the urban areas, to buy their children, even very young ones, screen gadgets like mobile phones and tablets for play and education purposes.

Everyone of us would agree that all of the senses give us vital information about our surroundings, but vision, facili­tated by the eyes, is the one we mostly depend on.

The records say about 80 per cent of what we learn from the world around us is mediated through vision.

How intriguing is it to learn that the human brain is respon­sible for every thought we have and sense we perceive, includ­ing vision, but without the eyes, the brain would have nothing to interpret.

Our eyes are described as the portal through which our brain can tell us about our world, while we learn new things, and accumulate wonderful memo­ries.

Considering the importance of the eyes and vision, we should take good care of the eyes by heeding expert advice such as sending our children for regular check-ups and regulat­ing the amount of time they spend on the screens.