The role of advocacy and communication in reducing ROP in India

摘要

Visual loss from ROP will continue to increase unless improvement in neonatal care facilities includes services for the detection and treatment of ROP. This requires strong advocacy efforts, communication and collaboration among all the stakeholders.Low birth weight (LBW) and prematurity are two major causes of neonatal and infant mortality rates in India. Nearly 7.5 million LBW and 3.5 million preterm infants are born in India every year, making it the country with highest number of preterm births in the world.1 With the aim of lowering perinatal and neonatal mortality rates, there has been a drive to expand neonatal care facilities. This impetus has been furthered by the National Neonatology Forum (NNF), National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other agencies, resulting in the opening of a number of Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs)/ Special Newborn Care Units (SNCUs). However, lack of infrastructure, human resources, knowledge and skills have led to imbalances in quality of services being offered. These, along with some other contributing factors (Table 1) have led to a rise in the rates of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).