Moorfields Eye Hospital Dubai, the Dubai branch of the London Eye Hospital, is calling for regular eye checks for children to mark the World Sight Day 2012, which falls on October 11.

World Sight Day is an international day of awareness, held annually on the second Thursday of October to focus attention on the global issue of avoidable blindness and visual impairment.

Dr Chris Canning, medical director at Moorfields Eye Hospital Dubai, said: “World Sight Day presents an opportunity for the medical community to raise awareness about the importance of protecting and improving the health of our eyes, which is an important part of our role in the UAE.”

“Vision screening is a good start. Screening younger children around the age of eight is especially important because around one in eight school children have some form of vision problem, and many of these problems would previously have been undiagnosed.

“Vision screening is able to pick up many, but not all, eye problems – it is not a substitute for a full eye examination – and it complements and extends the testing work of the schools’ own medical teams. Where problems are found, we advise parents on the nature of the problem and recommend a comprehensive examination in an eye centre,” he added.

Many parents may be very health conscious but still neglect to have a regular eye test for their children. A regular, professional eye test can detect eye problems even before symptoms appear and can prevent conditions developing or becoming more serious.

In school children, vision problems can manifest themselves as behavioural problems, resulting in children being labelled ‘slow learners’ or ‘troublesome’ and ‘disruptive’. – TradeArabia News Service