Mass eye screening held

In a day-long exercise, Sankara Nethralaya and Elite School of Optometry screened 8,469 students from schools run by the Chennai Corporation, on Monday. At least 4.25 per cent of students were found to have refractive errors and 2 per cent had impaired vision due to non-refractive errors. The research foundation and hospital will work with the Lion’s Club to provide free glasses for 359 students, Elite school of optometry principal Dr Krishna Kumar said. The screening was conducted in 39 schools of Zone 5 and 13 of the Chennai Corporation. Fifteen teams comprising 125 members including optometrists, social workers, optometry students, and volunteers were utilised in this exercise. Under the aegis of Chennai District Blindness Control Society’s ‘KannoliKappomThittam’, Elite School of Optometry completed the screening with support from Lions club of Padi, Shenoy Nagar. Elite School of Optometry has been involved with this unique venture of single day screening of school children in large numbers since 2010. As many as 12,448 children screened in 51 Chennai schools alone on a single day in 2010.