Ophthalmic experts prepare advocacy plans for ocular injury management
The Hindu
Experts gather to formulate plans for firecracker eye injuries & ocular trauma helpline at Traumacon 2023.
Ophthalmic trauma experts from India and beyond gathered at a two-day conference organised by the Ocular Trauma Society of India (OTSI) here to formulate advocacy plans for firecracker eye injuries, management of ocular trauma, and setting up an ocular trauma helpline.
Traumacon 2023, put together by OTSI in collaboration with the Asia Pacific Ophthalmic Trauma Society (APOTS), was inaugurated by K. Gangadhara Sundar, oculoplasty specialist at National University Hospital, Singapore, on Saturday.
Dr. Sundar, along with S. Natarajan, president, APOTS; T. Nirmal Fredrick, president, Tamil Nadu Ophthalmic Society; A.K. Grover, president, OTSI; and ophthalmic experts Rajan Eye Care’s Mohan Rajan, Mehul Shah, and Manoj Khatri, presented awards to doctors. The Hari Mohan Oration Award was given to Purendra Bhasin, while Raghavan Sampath received the G. Mukherjee Oration Award.
Ophthalmic trauma is a significant cause of avoidable blindness, with an estimated incidence of 980 per 1,00,000 population in a year, said experts. About 45% of peadiatric ocular injuries occur at home, of which cracker injuries constitute 10%, they said.
Dr. Natarajan said he had filed a public interest litigation petition to ban firecrackers during festivals and celebratory events as it was a cause for ocular injury.
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.