TB can hide in the eye, cause blindness -Babalola

Add as a preferred source Tuberculosis (TB) can silently attack the eye, mimic serious conditions including cancer and eventually cause irreversible loss of vision, a consultant ophthalmologist, Dr Yewande Babalola, has warned.

Babalola gave the warning while delivering a Faculty Lecture, at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, titled: “Ocular Tuberculosis: Seeing the Unseen Through the Looking Glass.”

Describing ocular tuberculosis as a rare extra-pulmonary manifestation of TB, she said the disease could affect virtually every part of the eye, including the eyelids, orbit, conjunctiva, iris, retina, choroid and optic nerve.

“Ocular tuberculosis is a great mimicker,” she said, explaining that its manifestations could resemble those of several other diseases, making diagnosis difficult.

According to Babalola, the eye could serve as a “window” or “mirror” to the body, with findings in the eye sometimes providing clues to disease elsewhere in the body.