AIIMS, health department to ascertain visual impairment causes through survey

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, along with the Gurugram health department, will start a five-day joint survey from Monday

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, along with the Gurugram health department, will start a five-day joint survey from Monday to understand causes of visual impairments in the district, officials of the health department said on Sunday.

The pilot survey aims to find out causes for blindness among different age groups, starting from school-going children to senior citizens (Representative image/Reuters)

The pilot survey aims to find out causes for blindness among different age groups, starting from school-going children to senior citizens.

Virendra Yadav, the chief medical officer of Gurugram, said that 30 clusters have been identified in the district for the survey. This survey will also help to identify the number of people suffering from visual impairments in the district, he said.

“In the country, it is believed that cataract is the primary cause of blindness in senior citizens, but there are several other causes for visual impairments that develop from childhood, due to lack of nutrition or other reasons. In this survey, named Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Visual Impairments, our teams will reach out to 1,200 people daily and cover a total of 6,000 people in the survey,” the chief medical officer said.

Yadav said that after Gurugram, the survey will be conducted in other parts of the country. However, it is not known whether the results will be shared individually or together.

Meanwhile, Covid-19 vaccination continued in the district on Sunday, with 19,341 people vaccinated at 88 vaccination centres. On Monday, vaccination will be held at 39 centres in the district.