RURAL OPTOMETRY AS AN INTEGRAL PRIMARY HEALTH CARE IN IMO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The ability to use the eyes to see the world around is regarded by people everywhere as their greatest gift. We rely on our sense of vision more than all of our other senses put together. In 1978, the Alma-Ata Declaration endorsed Primary Health Care (PHC) and established the goal of "Health For All By The Year 2000 (HFA 2000)" (1). PHC is defined as essential health care made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community by means acceptable to them at a cost that the country and community can afford (2). Affordability is a key facet of the approach. Indeed, some have seen it as a cheap option for health care in developing countries. It focuses on the provision of preventive and basic curative care at the lower tiers of the health care system because it is less expensive and potentially more effective in improving health status than the higher technology care health instructions (3). More broadly, the concept of PCH with its emphasis on viewing health development as a part of the whole development process on self reliance, community involvement, should be concerned with the pursuit of social justice through alleviation of health inequalities as is currently being enunciated by the Federal Government of Nigeria through MAMSER (Mass Mobilization for Self Reliance, Social Justice and Economic Recovery).