Awareness on ROP important for expecting mothers: MP Arora

Ludhiana, July 6, 2024: MP (Rajya Sabha) from Ludhiana and Member of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, Sanjeev Arora has laid stress on the need to create awareness for prevention of Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) across the country.

Arora was addressing an event organised by Have A Heart Foundation (Ludhiana), an NGO, here on Friday late evening. The aim of organising this event was to facilitate a joint interaction among senior ophthalmologists focused on ROP and discuss necessary steps to improve the state of ROP in Punjab. 

Further, Arora said it is appreciable that Have a Heart Foundation has partnered with Narayana Nethralaya to combat ROP through the KIDROP (Karnataka Internet Assisted Diagnosis of Retinopathy of Prematurity) Program. He added this public-private partnership employs retinal cameras and trained personnel to expand ROP screening across multiple cities and hospitals. The Foundation has supported ROP screening, screening of babies and performing successful treatments. The Foundation plans to expand its reach to additional cities, aiming to reduce and prevent blindness in premature infants across the nation. He lauded efforts of the Foundation’s President Balbir Kumar for rendering selfless service to the suffering society. 

Arora said ROP is a significant threat to premature infants' vision. Early screening and intervention are crucial to combat this condition. He added Have a Heart Foundation's efforts, in collaboration with Narayana Nethralaya, are making strides in preventing blindness in these vulnerable newborns, offering hope for a brighter future. He also laid stress on conducting more research on ROP in India where situation is worse. He added the situation in countries such as US, UK, Australia, France, and Germany, is much better because of its better and higher economies. Moreover, these countries have limited ROP because of better neonatal care.

Arora highly appreciated Dr. Anand Sudhir Vinekar from Narayana Nethralaya, Bangalore for doing commendable work in implementation Project ROP. He said it is really a matter of pride for the country that Dr. Vinekar ranked in the top 2 per cent of World Scientists published by Standford and enlisted in the top 10 ROP experts worldwide on the ExperScape Ranking. 

On the occasion, Dr. Anand Sudhir Vinekar spoke in detail about Project ROP and various stages of its implementation in the country. He stressed upon the need of more involvement of parents and civil society for successful implementation of Project ROP- the moto of which is “early detection, lifelong vision.”  During an open house question and answer session, Dr. Vinekar replied to various questions asked by the participants.

Among others the event was attended by Dr GS Wander, Dr Ashwini Chaudhry, Dr Bishav Mohan, Dr Gurvinder Kaur, Dr Priyanka Arora, Bipin Gupta Secretary DMCH, Mukesh Kumar Treasurer DMCH, Dr Sandeep Puri and Dr Suman Puri.  

It may be mentioned here that in 2015, the Ministry of Health, integrated ROP screening into the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) and the National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB). In 2017, the National Task Force of ROP in India issued operational guidelines for ROP.