JOIN US'Government will constitute vision committee in state'
Minister for Health and Family Welfare U T Khader has said that the government will constitute a vision committee to guide in the implementation of government schemes for the treatment of those suffering from vision impairment. The committee will comprise of doctors and experts.
Speaking after inaugurating West Coast unit of Karnataka Internet Assisted Diagnosis Retinopathy of Prematurity (KIDROP) in Mangaluru, a programme by Narayana Nethralaya, here on Monday, the Minister said the government organises free eye screening camp for schoolchildren and distributes spectacles for senior citizens.
However, there is a dearth of technicians for screening. The senior doctors and specialists of the vision committee will submit guidelines to the government on implementing various schemes related to eyes, he said. “Prevention of Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) among children would be a big step towards checking blindness,” he said.
Narayana Nethralaya Chairman Dr K Bhujang Shetty said that the first unit of KIDROP was started in Bengaluru in 2007 which covers six to seven districts.
Second unit is in North Karnataka which covers backward districts like Kalburgi, Bidar etc. Third is in Davanagere. The fourth unit covers Mangaluru, Udupi, Karwar, Kasargod and surrounding areas. It will visit the government hospitals and private hospitals on a fixed day in a week and take pictures of retina of premature born children with a portable wide-filed digital camera called Retcam Shuttle. This is done by technicians and there will be no doctors in the van. They can send the pictures of retina through smart phone and software will identify whether there is any problem in the retina.
Programme Director Dr Anand Vinekar said that west coast unit was started with the support of entrepreneur Dayanad Pai and Satish Pai. After the launch on August 18, 416 sessions have been conducted.
In the test conducted, 26 children were suffering from disease and six of have been treated. KIDROP is first tele-medicine programme to tackle the dearth of ROP specialists. KIDROP is associated with the National Rural Health Mission (NHM), Government of Karnatakae. “We have standard classical way of training ROP specialists adopted by the Government of India. Karnataka model of training is being followed by five other states,” he said.
National Neonatology Foundation Karnataka President Dr Shantaram Baliga said that mortality rate in India is 37 out of 100 birth and in Karnataka it is 31. In Dakshina Kannada the infant mortality rate is just 10.2. He urged the Minister to give prominence to setting up of neonatal intensive care units in government medical colleges. Entrepreneur Dayananda Pai, former MLA Yogish Bhat and others were present.