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The Ghana Optometric Association (GOA) has advised the public to avoid using eye-related medications without a prescription by a specialist as it has the potential to damage their eyes.
Dr. Alfred Gardemor, the GOA Public Relations Officer, said most people who purchased over-the-counter eye drops without seeing a specialist tended to add more problems to the existing defects.
He noted that some of those medications sold at the pharmacies were not recognised nor approved by the Food and Drugs Authority, hence could be detrimental to innocent users.
Dr. Gardemor, a Senior Optometrist at the Nsawam Government Hospital, gave the caution at the sixth sensitisation workshop by the Ghana News Agency in partnership with the Optometric Association of Ghana at Tema, dubbed: “GNA-GOA: My Eye! My Vision!
The initiative seeks to challenge the public and policymakers to focus on vision as a health issue, which forms a critical component of mankind’s wellbeing but is often neglected.
Dr. Gardemor urged individuals not to assume that because a drug worked for a friend, he or she could use that same drug without a prescription, adding: “The eye problems may show the same characteristics but medically they are not the same.”
“Don’t share drugs because it worked for a family member so based on that testimony other members who experience some similar ailment must automatically use that same drug”.
He noted that some pharmacists knew very well some drugs they sold to patients could not solve that particular ailment but sold it out anyway because they wanted to make a profit.
He, therefore, advised Ghanaians to desist from the act and regularly visit good optical clinics, at least once a year, to prevent damaging their eyes.
Mr. Francis Ameyibor, the Tema Regional Manager of GNA, explained that the “GNA-GOA: My Eyes! My Vision! provided a platform for optometrists and communication experts to disseminate well-coordinated eye care messages to the public.
Source: GNA
