Nepal

Pediatric Ophthalmology Interest Group Nepal

President:
Dr Suman Thapa, MD, PhD

Executive Committee members:
Dr Sabina Shrestha, MD

Contact:
srij_a@yahoo.com

Pediatric Ophthalmology interest group Nepal is a group of Pediatric Ophthalmologists involved in pediatric eye care in Nepal. The group works under the umbrella of Nepal Ophthalmic Society (National Ophthalmology Society of Nepal). Pediatric ophthalmology in Nepal is still in its preliminary stage. There are 12 fellowship trained pediatric ophthalmologists in Nepal who work in hospitals in different parts of the country. Initially service was limited to the capital. Now the practice has been expanded in several different peripheral hospitals. Refractive error and amblyopia are the most common ocular diseases in children in Nepal. Other diseases are strabismus, ocular trauma congenital cataracts, congenital glaucoma etc.

Just like other developing countries in the world, retinopathy of prematurity is an emerging cause of childhood ocular morbidity in Nepal. The prevalence of childhood blindness in Nepal is 0.06% (Adhikari et al, Nepal Pediatric Ocular Disease Study 2014).