Hyderabad: Constant irritation, rubbing and redness in eyes are complaints of students from primary schools coping with the online classes and summer heat. The condition has aggravated as the shift in temperatures is resulting in a dehydration of the body.
Several parents are taking to hospitals their children complaining of redness in eyes and blurred vision and showing behavioural irritation as these are affecting their concentration during the classes.
Rupali Mehta, a mother of three girls says, "My two younger daughters in primary section were taking the mobile phones closer to them to read what’s on the screen. This got me worried as the gadget light is harmful. An eye-check with a doctor revealed that they developed sight problems and were suffering from dry eyes."
As the ‘dry eyes’ syndrome is not known to many families, it required a lot of counselling to convince them that it was due to overuse of gadgets. The dryness is caused as the blinking of eyes is reduced to 10 times from 40 times per minute.
Dr Atul Gupta, ophthalmologist with the government medical college explains, "The dry eyes problem has multiplied ten times during the pandemic and many of them are reaching out to doctors for help. In the past, only IT staff suffered from it. Now a lot of staff from banks, insurance, realty sector as also students are coming with complaints.
Many conclude this to be a problem with their sight and insist on having eye-check-up. It is actually their continuous work and less exposure to oxygen in the outside environment that aggravate the condition."
Eye lubricants take atmospheric oxygen to revive. For 10 months, there was restricted movement outside, and now too people are careful. To add to it, summer heat dehydration is setting in which is also affecting the eyes.
Dr Vijay Kiran, senior ophthalmologist, says, "Preventive measures involve that one must look at an object 20 feet away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes and then resume work. It is important for eyes to blink every minute as this is a healthy trend."
Parents and schools are counselled to use these preventive measures to help their children cope with the use of gadgets till the educational institutions resume full-time classes.
