Our 32 hour journey to Kano involved a dogs leg to Dubai. Apart from a forgotten yellow fever certificate brought at speed to the airport by a dedicated spouse, the journey was uneventful.

Western trust team with 3 of the 4 ECWA doctors

ECWA eye hospital in Kano has a total of 126 staff including 4 doctors, 20 nurses, 7 administrative staff and 25 cleaners. Kano has a population of 7 million. Nigeria, a population of 149 million. In the Western Trust patients can travel up to 100km for treatment. In ECWA some patients had come 1,500km! Dr Abuh, the paediatric ophthalmologist draws these patients from far and wide for treatment of such conditions as childhood cataracts, retinoblastoma and glaucoma. There’s a screening programme by CBM for paediatric cataracts reaching the poorest of the poor. I saw many patients they’d referred with bilateraly blinding cataracts allowing only light perception vision. The absence of nystagmus (wobbly eyes) suggested these cataracts were likely to be developmental rather than congenital. After surgery these children were moving around independantly. I watched a 6 year old girl who had been blind for 4 years exploring the room with wonderment.

Dr Abu is keen to offer a service “that would be good enough for his own child”. He has been requesting a VISION 2020 link for 5 years. He has a clear idea of the areas that he wants to improve upon. Our visit allowed us to see their case mix and watch how the clinics and theatre sessions were conducted. In late November a team from ECWA eye hospital will visit us in the Western trust. At the end of their week with us, we’ll draw up a 3 year activity plan detailing the training programme we’ll conduct. I think the collaboration will be fruitful for both departments.

Compiled by Rosie Brennan, Paediatric Ophthalmologist