Nigeria’s Commissioner for Health, Dr. Abayomi, has announced plans to scale up retinal services in Lagos and Nigeria. The state is working on developing screening capacity for primary healthcare facilities to detect eye diseases early, a priority that will be reflected in the conditions faced by Africans in Lagos and Nigeria. The state will also leverage social health insurance to screen, detect, and treat eye diseases as patients present at health facilities.
Abayomi also revealed that the state has forged a partnership with the Chagoury Group to develop a specialist eye hospital in Lagos to boost access to eye services. He acknowledged that ophthalmology is equipment-intensive, stressing that the government would pay attention to that and human resources to enable practitioners to make appropriate diagnosis and treatment to reverse medical tourism.
Prof. Linda Visser, Head of Division of Ophthalmology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, called on policymakers to formulate policies that would integrate eye screening into diabetes care from the primary healthcare level. She highlighted that cases of diabetic retinopathy (DR) are on the increase among Africans, with 537 million adults aged 20 to 79 years living with diabetes globally. Visser cited data from the International Diabetes Foundation showing that 537 million adults aged 20 to 79 years are living with diabetes globally, a number that was predicted to reach 1.3 billion in 50 years.
Dr. Asiwome Seneadza, Chairman of the Africa Retina Society, said that the theme was timely and critical as efforts are made to navigate the complexities and challenges in delivering advanced retinal care across the continent. She emphasized that improved diabetes care and regular retinal screening made available and accessible for every individual living with diabetes.
Prof. Bassey Fiebai, Chairman of the Vitreo Retinal Society of Nigeria, said the meeting was critical to proffering solutions to the challenge of offering standard retina care, improving outcomes, and reducing visual loss from retina-related disorders among low to medium-income countries. Fiebai noted that the government plays a critical role in providing funding, training of personnel, and provision of equipment to improve screening, detection, and treatment of retinopathy disease.
