Radhatri Nethralaya tertiary eye care hospital, Chennai will be conducting “Nethra’ 25”, a Carnatic Musical by the noted vocalists Ranjani and Gayatri (The Raga sisters) to raise awareness about Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), the blinding condition affecting preterm babies on Nov 16, Sunday at 6 pm at Krishna Gana Sabha. The musicians visited Radhatri Nethralaya on Nov.13, to meet and interact with the parents of preterm babies who were undergoing treatment for ROP. Through Nethra’ 25, they promised to support “#Lendyourvoiceforrop”, a unique initiative by Radhatri Nethralaya wherein celebrities lend their voices and speak about ROP to increase awareness about this condition amongst the public.
Dr. Praveen Krishna, Medical Director, Radhatri Nethralaya said, that Nethra’ 25, an annual event for the past four years, aims to support the charitable activities of Gurupriya Vision Research Foundation, the public charitable trust of Radhatri Nethralaya, towards prevention of needless childhood blindness. Dr. Vasumathy Vedantham, Medical Director, Radhatri Nethralaya, said that ROP was emerging as a prime villain of the eyesight of babies born prematurely, with the magnitude of the problem being huge in India which has the maximum number of preterm births in the world. Through Project Vision on Wheels, our signature free rural teleophthalmology project, more than 1 lakh 50,000 babies have been screened in rural Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh by handheld retinal cameras, and more than 5000 babies prevented from blindness by timely laser, injections and vitrecto my surgeries under general anaesthesia, she added.