Eye care infiltrated by quacks- Experts

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Eye experts have cautioned the public against quacks that fill the void created by lack of qualified professionals.

This follows the high number of eye clinics that are emerging in different parts of the city owing to the increasing number of people opting for spectacles including school-going children.

Dr Naomi Nsubuga an Optometrist and lecturer in the department of optometry says that with wearing glasses being viewed as something trendy, eye clinics are also promising a lot including computerized eye checks which are mostly done by inexperienced individuals.

She says a lot of children using glasses actually don’t need them and yet even for those that need them, they do not require them for full-time use.

Dr Anne Ampaire, an ophthalmologist at the eye teaching clinic in Mulago hospital says different eye clinics are operated by mainly marketers and businessmen with a mix of some physicians and have taken advantage of the fact that qualified professionals are few with only 30 ophthalmologists for the whole country of a population of more than 40 million people.

Because such operators are not well versed with the specialty, she says they end up giving clients wrong eyeglass prescriptions and guidance that only make their eye problems worse.

The ophthalmologists are trained to perform eye exams, diagnose and treat disease, prescribe medications and perform eye surgery but those that are scarce in the country are the optometrists who are supposed to examine the eyes and prescribe eyeglasses or contact lenses.

Nsubuga says they have so far only graduated 8 of such specialists as the course is fairly new in the country.  But, she says about 50 of such experts are currently in training.

She adds that equipment to diagnose most of the eye problems also remains scarce as rely on machine donations.

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