Glaucoma in Nigeria: fighting ‘the silent thief of sight’

Dr Fatima Kyari, one of the Keep Sight trainers, is an ophthalmologist who focused on glaucoma as part of her PhD research. She highlights the importance of getting checked if you have a family member with the condition. “If a person has glaucoma, there is a high risk their parents, siblings or children may be affected,” she says. “So any person that has glaucoma should encourage those relatives to have their eyes checked as well.

“The patients don’t understand the disease, as they don’t get to see the symptoms early. So they come late. Then medicines are expensive, and people are reluctant to get surgery. Surgeons may also be reluctant to perform the surgery when the condition is very advanced.

“Unlike other conditions such as cataracts, it’s not a ‘wow’ thing. When you remove the cataracts, they wake up the following day and it’s like: ‘Wow, I can see.’ But glaucoma is not like that.”

Prof Ayanniyi explains that to improve the awareness of glaucoma, he needs support from the government, non-governmental organisations and society in general so people will get screened earlier.

“It’s possible for somebody or an individual with glaucoma to have near normal vision throughout their life,” he says. “If there is support, glaucoma should no longer be a blinding eye condition. I see a situation when glaucoma will no longer be causing blindness.”