TMSS Medical College Journal

Background: Many people become blind in the world due to ocular infection which can be prevented. In Bangladesh also there are incidences of ocular infections and majority of the people is illiterate. Through proper health education it may be possible to decrease the incidences of ocular infections. Objective: To find out the association between the ocular hygiene practices and most common ocular infective disease among the patients attending RCH, Bogra. Methods: An analytic cross-sectional study was conducted to assess and determine the ocular disease pattern at Rafatullah Community Hospital (RCH), Bogra, Bangladesh. This 500 bed hospital is a medical college hospital for TMSS Medical College. It has its community service all over the northern region of Bangladesh and patients comes to this hospital from 52 sub-clinics of different parts of northern region of Bangladesh by the free Shuttle Bus service from Rafatullah Community Hospital. The sub-clinics were selected by simple randomization and patients were selected by incidental/accidental sampling technique. Data were collected by interviewing the patients through semi-structured questionnaire and the diagnosis was confirmed by proper ocular examinations and relative investigations. Results: Among 377 patients 101 (26.8%) were male and 276 (73.2%) were female. Safe ocular hygienic practices among the patient were poor. 51.1% of the patients were using polluted water like pond and river water for the cleaning the face and hands. 74.3% patients mentioned, they use any kind of water to clean their eyes, 79.8% patients said they uses any cloth to wipe their eyes after cleaning. The common infective ocular diseases were dacryocyctitis (n=22, 5.8%) and bacterial conjunctivitis (n=12, 3.4%). Conclution: The study revealed there was association between the personal ocular hygienic practices and development of infective ocular disease (p<0.01).

Ocular health problems are one of the major public health issue in the world across the developed and developing countries. According to the Bangladesh Blindness Profile4 over 750,000 blind in Bangladesh among them 80% due to cataract and over 6 million need vision correction by spectacles & other means. To meet this national problem, the National Eye Care project Vision 2020 was launched in the year 2000 by Director General of Health Services of Bangladesh. There are many NGO in Bangladesh are working on blindness prevention like Grameen Bank, Sight Savers etc. TMSS is the 3rd largest NGO in Bangladesh. Among the many projects it has also primary and tertiary health care programs. Illiteracy rate in Bangladesh is high and common infective diseases are due to lack of knowledge and personal hygienic practices. Through proper health education we can prevent the incidences of infective diseases. This research will be helping to identify the common ocular health problem in this region of the Bangladesh and can address those problems, make specific plans and action regarding those health issues.