Telangana Govt’s Kanti Velugu a big success

Patients received free reading and prescription glasses and those needing medical intervention were referred to specialty doctors at SD Eye Hospital, Mehdipatnam, to undergo treatment

Hyderabad: Before Kanti Velugu, the unique mass eye screening programme, was launched by the Telangana government, there were not many public health initiatives focused on the preventive diagnosis and timely treatment of diseases related to the eyes.

With the launch of the massive eye screening initiative of Kanti Velugu, the State government addressed this gap in eye healthcare by ensuring eye-related ailments are diagnosed and treated at the earliest. Patients received free reading and prescription glasses and those needing medical intervention were referred to specialty doctors at SD Eye Hospital, Mehdipatnam, to undergo treatment.

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Launched on January 18, 2023, the Kanti Velugu initiative was conducted by nearly 1,500 medical teams for 100 working days and concluded on June 16, screening nearly 1.5 crore individuals for different kinds of ailments.

Out of the total 1,52,61,763 individuals who underwent eye screening, about 75 per cent i.e. 1,13,52,870 individuals had no eye-related issues. A total of 21.66 reading glasses were distributed to identified 17,41,782 individuals who needed prescription glasses.

Based on Kanti Velugu statistics, about 11 per cent of the beneficiaries who have been screened needed prescription glasses while 14 per cent were handed over reading glasses on the spot.

The success of the Kanti Velugu scheme, which involved conducting basic eye screening tests for a large population, was also largely due to the unique protocol known as the Basic Eye Screening Test (BEST) protocol developed by State health officials and L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI).

The unique feature of the BEST protocol is that the eye screening can be implemented by ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist), Auxiliary Nursing Midwifery (ANM) and other grass-root level health workers after just two hours of training.