Rwanda Military Hospital has acquired a state of the art equipment to diagnose Glaucoma cases.Glaucoma is an eye defect where the optic nerve is damaged, causing one’s vision to narrow. Statistics indicate that this disease accounts for over 20 per cent of blindness cases in the country.The equipment, referred to as an automated visual field machine, together with a Laser machine that also treats complications of diabetes, cost around $200,000, according to a physician at the military facility.According to Dr John Nkurikiye, an ophthalmologist at the hospital, before the machine’s arrival, eye specialists had no technical way of finding out the state of one’s eyes to accurately detect the level of glaucoma.“The new machine adds value and helps to diagnose accurately. It can detect whether one’s vision is deteriorating or improving. It has also helped us create a database so we’ll easily make follow-ups for our patients,” he said.He called upon everyone who is above the age of 40 to go for screening and ensure that they aren’t suffering from the eye defect that causes blindness.According to statistics, other causes of blindness include cataract disease, refractive errors, diabetic retinopathy and childhood blindness.Nkuriye, however, noted that Glaucoma and Diabetic retinopathy are traditionally more difficult diseases to deal with.He noted that glaucoma isn’t painful so people usually go for diagnosis when it’s quite late and in the bad stages. In most cases, according to him, glaucoma is genetic, and, at times, caused by some medications such as steroids. It also mainly attacks people above the age of 40.
