Introduce Blindness Prevention Scheme into Community, Pay Attention to Eye Health

Today is International Children’s Day, and following which we will immediately have National Eye-Care Day on June 6. Here, I would like to introduce some children eye care knowledge.

Childhood is a critical period for vision development. Hence, visual protection should be strengthened since childhood. The optimal treatment effect can be achieved if some common eye diseases that cause disabilities and blindness can be detected, intervened and treated in the early stage.

If a child was found to have the following symptoms: pupil area looks pale, or iris area looks watery, or bigger than ordinary people; he/she often squints, or tilts head; can only see things clearly in a very short distance; or stumbles easily at little blocks, holds a poor vision in the evening, is afraid of walking on stairs, or often falls, then the parents must not treat it lightly, and should duly send the him/her to hospital for examination and treatments.

In addition, one eye visual abnormality of a child sometimes cannot be detected in appearance. Now, we are going to introduce a very convenient and practical examination method, and the parents can give it a try: if a child does not have any response when one of his/her eyes is covered, then there is a possibility that the covered eye may have some problems; or, if he/she seems to be annoyed and refuses eye-covering, it means the vision of the covered eye is normal.

Children are very curious and inclined to be active, which may very often lead to eye injuries. Then, how should parents deal with such situation?

Parents should firstly calm down, when eye injury happens. If the injury is caused by acid or alkali chemical burns, the eye should be immediately and repetitively flushed with clean water, so as to remove the chemical substances that have spattered into the eye; or, the parents can ask the injured child to immerse his or her face into the water to dilute or remove the chemical substances in the eye, whereafter, the parents should send the child to a nearby hospital for further treatments. When a child was injured, some parents would blindly seek treatments from large hospitals, as a result the precious emergency treatment timing was deferred due to the large amount of time spent on road. Therefore, when children eye injury takes place, what parents must keep in mind is: value every single second, and seek treatments from the nearest hospital.

In terms of children visual protection, what the parents should pay attention to is: children’s posture, the length of eye use and illumination situation when the children are reading and writing; children’s eye hygiene; stop children from using hands to rub eyes; in order to avoid eye infection, do not let children share towels and basins with other people; keep children away from hazards: prevent the harm caused by intense light, firecracker, and alkali and acid chemicals. In addition, a balanced diet is also very important. Such substances as protein and Vitamin A contained in the food are very important for eye development and normal ocular functions.

　　June 6 is National Eye-Care Day. This year, we are going to celebrate the 12th anniversary of this event, the theme of which is: “Introduce Blindness Prevention Scheme into Community, Pay Attention to Eye Health”. On the day, we will organize a series of lectures and propaganda activities. For instance, we will invite some renowned ophthalmologic specialists to provide on-site free medical treatment and consultation service in the community. Meanwhile, booklets and folders on relevant knowledge will be distributed. We will also organize experts to open Eye-care classes in the community, and deliver interactive keynote speeches, and provision the citizens with eye-related professional knowledge and general prevention knowledge for ocular diseases.

     We hope that everybody can actively participate in these activities, to learn eye-care knowledge, and protect the eyes of your own and your family.