He said this will help the Association contribute meaningfully to national development by creating awareness on the dangers of the disease and ensure early detection and treatment.

Mr. Abutiate made the call when the Association held free medical screening in Accra on Saturday as part of the World Glaucoma Week Celebration.

He said a study conducted in 2010 showed that more than 700,000 Ghanaians were living with glaucoma, and that now that the population of Ghana had reached 30 million, 60,000 Ghanaians were already blind.

Mr. Abutiate said glaucoma exist when the intra-ocular pressure is raised over a period and causes damage to the optic nerve head with corresponding loss of visual function.

He said untreated glaucoma gradually results in blindness because of the irreversible damage it causes, adding that it was the number one cause of irreversible blindness in the world.

The President said Primary Open Angle Glaucoma appeared to be the most common and was due to poor drainage rather than overproduction of aqueous fluid.

‘These are areas that the drug act upon, he said, adding that reduced blood flow to the optic nerve could also lead to damage and loss of vision.

Mr. Abutiate said the GAG would soon launch a GHȼ100,000.00 fund to help set up a secretariat for more effective running of the GAG, purchase basic equipment and drugs for screening and treatment of patients.

He expressed the hope that the GAG would continue to educate the public on the disease, undertake research on the prevalence, and provide scientific data on the disease to decision makers to help arrive at better prevention and treatment measures.

–

Source: GNA

The post Glaucoma Association of Ghana appeals for gov’t support appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

It also came out that 207, 000 people, representing 0.74 of the population, had totally gone blind.

The study identified cataract, glaucoma, posterior segment diseases, cornea opacity and refractive error as the principal causes of blindness and visual impairment in the country.

It further indicated that 89 per cent of low vision cases were due to avoidable causes while rural residents and the poor stood a greater risk of blindness due to low access and affordability of eye care services.

Significance

The survey was aimed at providing a national representative data on blindness and visual impairment and its actual prevalence rate to enhance eye care delivery services in Ghana.

It was conducted in 2015 under a Public-Private Partnership arrangement between the Ghana Health Service (GHS), the Standard Chartered Bank, the Swiss Red Cross, Operation and Eyesight Universal, an eye care company.

It was also to quantify avoidable causes of visual impairment, blindness and identify the challenges in eye care service delivery.

The study became necessary due to the enormity of the problem of visual impairment in the face of lack of adequate data for effective national interventions on eye care services.

Recommendations

The study recommended a national strategy to make eye care universally affordable and accessible.

It suggested that the national eye health policy should be re-focused on addressing glaucoma, retinal diseases, cataract and refractive error.

The study underscored the need for further studies to address cataract surgery coverage; barrier to the uptake of eyeglasses; association between pterygium, dry eyes and cooking with solid fuel, trachoma and pit latrines; glaucoma; posterior segment diseases (diabetic retinopathy) and childhood blindness.

Remarks

Launching the report in Accra last Tuesday, the Director-General of the GHS, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, said the findings would serve as a basis for designing future interventions and setting up monitoring indicators to track performance.

“It will as well help to consolidate the joint efforts of policy makers, partners and eye health professionals working towards the attainment of integrated, accessible, sustainable, and equitable and quality eye health for all,” he said.

Dr Nsiah-Asare said globally identified public health issues had far-reaching socio-economic consequences and that blindness and visual impairment were associated to poverty.

He said the Ghana Eye Health Programme was committed to working towards the reduction of avoidable blindness and visual impairment in the country.

The Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank, Ms Mansa Nettey, said the bank was carrying out a number of initiatives to support national interventions to ensure a population with good eyesight with access to quality eye care services.

–

Source: Graphic.com.gh

The post 300,000 Ghanaians on the verge of blindness — Survey appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

He said resources generated at the local level would help in the country’s development, especially at the grass root level.

Dr Nii Moi Thompson, an Economist, was speaking on behalf of the President, at the opening of the National Consultative Conference on Strategic Guidelines to Optimize IGF on Tuesday.

The day’s conference was on the theme: “Maximizing Internally Generated Revenue Potentials for Improved Local Level Service Delivery”.

It provided a forum for the review of key policies, legal, institutional, administrative and capacity issues emerging in the mobilization and the utilization of internally generated revenue at the local level.

It was also to validate, generate recommendations and set priorities for the implementation and generally foster consensus.

The conference was aimed at examining four thematic issues, including sources of IGF, mobilization and revenue collection, utilization and service delivery and tax payers’ rights and responsibility.

President Mahama said the MMDAs needed to form viable partnership to enable them improve on their IGF to develop their districts, since effective resource mobilization comes with responsibility.

He noted that government would continue to thrive to make lives comfortable for the people through the decentralization system.

Seth Terkper, Minister of Finance, said a combination of well-formulated policy options and administrative measures were required at the central and district level, to address the challenges of IGF.

“These measures should capacitate and empower MMDAs to manage their local revenue operations effectively and efficiently,” he added.

According to him, one of the key principles of fiscal decentralization was equity in resources available for improved service delivery, however, the trend over the years showed wide disparity in the IGF resource availability among the MMDAs.

He said property rates all over the world were major resources of revenue for local government, however, the contribution of these rates to the total IGF revenue of Assemblies appears to be decreasing.

The Minister said the outcome of the conference should contribute to the development of a comprehensive set of strategic guidelines to improve IGF mobilization and management efforts.

Akwasi Oppong-Fosu, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, said the reasons for the relatively low percentage of IGF was with structural, administrative and systemic inefficiencies within the MMDAs.

He mentioned that some of the administrative constraints affecting revenue mobilization at the local level include MMDAs capacity to effectively and efficiently improve IGF for service delivery.

According to him, the country, having implemented the decentralization programme for more than two decades, MMDAs should now be less reliant on the central government transfers, since they are only meant to supplement IGF.

He said boundary disputes have also contributed to the non-realization of IGF in MMDAs with disputes.

Source: GNA

The post Initiate innovative measures to improve IGF- Mahama appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.