President of the Ophthalmologist Society of Ghana, Dr. Dzifa-Bella Ofori-Adjei, has disclosed that eye drops do not cure glaucoma but are meant for the medical management of the disease to prevent the progression of the disease.
Speaking on the GTV Breakfast Show, she stated that some patients get discouraged from the daily administration of eye drops without being healed.
“You put the drops in the eye every single day, and that is the difficulty for people. The drops do not cure the disease. It does not bring back the lost vision. It maintains the vision you have,” she explained.
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that can cause vision loss and blindness by damaging a nerve in the back of your eye called the optic nerve.
Dr. Ofori-Adjei also stated that Ghana has one of the highest prevalences of glaucoma, adding that a 2015 study showed that blindness in one out of five people is caused by glaucoma.
She made these statements to mark World Glaucoma Week (March 12–18, 2023). She encouraged Ghanaians to have their eyes checked at the hospital to aid in early detection and slow the progression of glaucoma.