Only 79 glaucoma specialists are providing treatment to around 25 lakh glaucoma patients across the country. Even though the number of patients keeps increasing at an alarming rate, the number of specialist doctors is not rising at the same rate, experts told The Independent yesterday.
According to the experts, poor patients afflicted with glaucoma are being deprived of treatment because of the high cost of medicines and tests. Only a few tertiary-level hospitals and some private healthcare centres have the facilities to treat glaucoma patients. Some government hospitals have the necessary equipment, but they are lying unutilised, said the experts.
“It’s a long-term disease and patients need to follow up three to four times annually. They have to spend up to Tk. 60,000 a year for treatment in private hospitals,” Dr Siddiqur Rahman, organising secretary of the Bangladesh Glaucoma Society (BGS), told this correspondent. Dr Rahman said a patient has to buy eye drops worth at least Tk. 15,00 per month. Poor patients icannot afford such drops, he added.
Glaucoma is a disease that leads to irreversible blindness, he said, adding that most types of glaucoma is congenital or hereditary.
“People aged over 40 years are very prone to developing glaucoma. About 1.2 per cent people over this age are suffering from the disease around the world. As much as 5 per cent of the people over 65 years are at serious risk from glaucoma,” Dr Rahman, who is also a glaucoma specialist at Dhaka’s Vision Eye Hospital, said in reply to a query.
He also said the number of glaucoma specialists is only 79 against 25 lakh such patients in Bangladesh. “Facilities for detecting glaucoma are inadequate, considering the number of patients across the country. The treatment is also pretty expensive,” he added.
“Owing to lack of adequate training institutions, there are not many glaucoma specialists in the country. In fact, a huge number of glaucoma patients remain untreated in the country,” he noted. Only a few organisations like Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), National Institute of Ophthalmology, Islamia Eye hospital, Chittagong Eye Infirmary and Training Complex and Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib Eye Hospital in Gopalganj are providing training to glaucoma specialists in the country, he said. The 9th annual national conference of the Bangladesh Glaucoma Society (BGS) was held on November 24 in Cox’s Bazar. Renowned ophthalmologist Prof. Shaikh MA Mannaf, Bangladesh Ophthalmological Society (OSB) president Prof. Sharfuddin Ahmed, BGS president Dr Ziaul Karim and Prof. M Nazrul Islam also spoke on the occasion. Around 200 ophthalmologists, including glaucoma specialists from home and abroad, attended the conference. They expressed serious concern over the increasing number of glaucoma patients around the world. The experts also stressed the need of increasing awareness among the people and patients before the symptoms develop. If treatment is started right from the early stage after diagnosis, glaucoma can be prevented to a tolerable limit, they said.
The experts expressed hope that considering the present glaucoma scenario in Bangladesh, such conferences and seminars will play an important role in reducing the number of glaucoma patients in the country.
Ophthalmologists from India, Singapore, Zambia and Nigeria took part in the conference and shared their experiences to help Bangladeshi doctors, the organisers said.