K'taka kickstarts project to tackle infant blindness

Narayana Nethralaya has announced the rollout of FOREVER, which will be implemented in 16 taluks of Karnataka

In a bid to tackle blindness in infants, the state government has kickstarted a programme along with the central government under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK). The Union government has chosen Narayana Nethralaya here to implement a community paediatric eye programme that involves universal screening of babies till the age of one.

Aimed at detecting various childhood blindness diseases, the programme will be implemented as part of the recently-launched RBSK under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). Following this, Narayana Nethralaya has announced the rollout of FOREVER (Focus on Retinopathy of Prematurity, Eye Care, Vision, Eye Cancer and Rehabilitation), which will be implemented in 16 taluks of Karnataka.

Conceptualised by the eye hospital under its Karnataka Internet Assisted Diagnosis of Retinopathy of Prematurity (Kidrop) initiative, FOREVER will use the services of Accredited Social Health Activists (Ashas) to examine babies at critical time points using a low-cost method.

Speaking on the launch of FOREVER, Dr Bhujang Shetty, chairman and managing director, Narayana Nethralaya, said, "Earlier this year, the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, under the National Rural Health Mission, released a new programme, the RBSK, which is designed to provide universal screening to over 270 million babies born each year in our country, for defects at birth, diseases, deficiencies and developmental delay leading to disability. When Karnataka was selected to implement RBSK on a pilot basis, we proposed FOREVER because we already had a successful model for such a project. The Union government has approved our programme and has asked us to collaborate with the state government to begin implementation."

Over 3,200 Ashas will be trained for the pilot project, said Anand Vinekar, programme director of Kidrop and FOREVER.

Babies detected to be 'abnormal' are referred to the taluk level and there-after the district hospital depending on their diagnosis. The validation of positive cases will be undertaken by Narayana Nethralaya's team of experts. "A special team from Narayana Nethralaya will train over 3,200 Ashas to examine babies. The project will commence in the first quarter of 2013-14. FOREVER will provide pilot data to serve for an all India expansion through the backbone of the RBSK," Vinekar added.