TY - JOUR T1 - Strengths, challenges and opportunities of implementing primary eye care in Nigeria JF - BMJ Global Health DO - 10.1136/bmjgh-2018-000846 VL - 3 IS - 6 SP - e000846 AU - Ada E Aghaji AU - Claire Gilbert AU - Nnenna Ihebuzor AU - Hannah Faal Y1 - 2018/12/01 UR - http://gh.bmj.com/content/3/6/e000846.abstract N2 - Summary boxNigeria has a high magnitude of blindness and visual impairment and in addition, there is inequity in accessing eye care.Primary eye care (PEC) activities in Nigeria have largely been donor driven and unsustainable partly due to primary healthcare (PHC) system challenges.Nigeria’s current administration is implementing Universal Health Coverage through a revitalised PHC system.The WHO has recently piloted a PEC package for sub-Saharan Africa (WHO AFRO PEC package).Nigeria has the opportunity to leverage on the revitalised PHC and the recently developed WHO AFRO PEC package to implement equitable and accessible PEC and achieve universal eye health.An estimated 253 million people are blind or visually impaired worldwide, 90% of whom live in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs).1 In Nigeria, a LMIC, approximately 4.25 million adults are blind or visually impaired with over 80% of the blindness from avoidable causes.2 Cataract is the most common cause of blindness in Nigeria and is readily treatable by surgery. Refractive errors, which can readily be treated by spectacles, are the most common cause of visual impairment. However, the Nigerian national blindness survey showed that almost half of all eyes that had a procedure for cataract had been couched (a traditional procedure for clearing the visual axis as a treatment for cataract3), with poor visual outcomes and <5% of those with refractive errors had spectacles.4 5 Lack of accessible eye care services and lack of awareness of where to seek services are some of the reasons why patients remain visually impaired or seek unorthodox treatment, even though outcomes are poor.6 Other eye conditions which cause ocular morbidity for which access to eye care is needed include presbyopia (age-related decline in near vision), allergic/infective conjunctivitis and other conditions which may cause distress and warrant treatment at the primary … ER -