Eye

What should I write about eyes? The medical technicalities? Better I leave that in the able hands of wikipedia editors with optic trainings. Should I get very romantic now, describe the beauty of eyes? Better I leave that in the hands of compulsive poets who could write an epic for each eye-lid of their beloved. Then what should I write on eye? The Journal of Nursing of USA (1)reports only two cents worth of eye-drop could save a child from blindness. Well, that's 1910's estimate of 2 cents, when a gallon of gasoline was probably a 25 cents in USA. Now it is May 2008, when a gallon of gasoline is hitting $ 5 fast. that's an inflation of 20 times compared to 1910 price level measured by gasoline price in USA in 1910. Today, may be not two cents, but 40 cents (i.e., 2 cents x 20)would be required to save a child from blindness by making right eye-drop available and applied on the new born on time. Well, that's still bellow 50 cents a child. There are millions of children in the world, specially in the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America who are exposed to serious risk of child blindness due to lack of adequate post-natal care, and lack of critical eye-drops to supply vitamin A and other essential vitamins. If forty cents could save a child from blindness, diverting the budget of manufacturing a high-tech missile to mass production of eye drops containing vitamin A could save millions of childs from premature vision disorder. But will the warlords listen to us, ever?


reference:
(1) Ophthalmia Neonatorum as a Cause of Blindness
Carolyn Conant Van Blarcom
The American Journal of Nursing, Vol. 10, No. 10 (Jul., 1910), pp. 724-734 (article consists of 14 pages)
Published by: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins