The impact of COVID-19 on eye care: a first-hand experience

By Nish Mohith Kurukuti – Mr. Kurukuti is responsible for product development at Nearsighted Globe, and currently a PhD student at Northwestern University.

COVID-19 (Coronavirus) disrupted everyone’s life across the world. It is not surprising that it has also impacted eye care delivery. Being a part of a non-profit, Nearsighted Globe, which strives to diagnose myopia and provide glasses around the world, I experienced its impact firsthand. As part of our mission to diagnose myopia, we pilot tested our refractive kit, a high science – low technology device to diagnose myopia, in January of 2020, at a school in Venkatapuram, a rural village in the state of Telangana, India. After the pilot testing we found a significant number of children required refractive correction but did not have access to eye care. Hence, we started planning to send prescription eyeglasses for children needing refractive correction, who were tested during the pilot.

However, in early March, India experienced an increase in COVID-19 cases leading the government to impose a lockdown in the country. Although the lockdown started as a 4-week mandate, with sustained increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, it got extended to being a 4 month lockdown. This lockdown not only prevented us from sending eyeglasses but also further impacted the citizens of Venkatapuram. 

Most of the families in Venkatapuram earn their daily needs by working as laborers in a cement factory located in the village. Majority of these workers migrated from different parts of India to be able to work in the factory. Due to the lockdown and shut down of the factory, all families had to deal with loss of income, food shortages and uncertainty about their future. With no work and money, and lockdown restrictions putting a stop to public transport, many of the families began walking back home in large groups, carrying minimal possessions and risking their lives to the virus as social distancing was not possible. 

In July of 2020, we tried to get back to the community of Venkatapuram to see if we could reach the migrant families and send the eyeglasses to the children in need. Unfortunately, with no contact information of the families and with no guarantee that they would return to work at the factory, we were not able to provide the children with eyeglasses. 

We hope that the migrant families were able to safely reach their home towns and villages. We are now working towards establishing a network of eyeglasses manufacturers across India, so that we can minimize the time for eyeglasses delivery following the diagnosis. We hope that this will not only mitigate the problem of eye care delivery during COVID-19 but will also empower us to quickly provide eyeglasses to people in need.