The health ministry, in cooperation with two NGOs—BRAC and Sightsavers—has launched a pilot project to conduct surgery on some one lakh cataract patients in Sylhet division over a period of three years.
The Vision Bangladesh Project aims at eliminating 'avoidable blindness' from Bangladesh by the year 2020, ministry officials said.
The pilot project has started from Sylhet division covering its 12 upazilas of four north-eastern districts.
At a function held on Sunday at a city hotel, the government formally signed a contract with BRAC and Sightsavers to implement the project.
The health minister AFM Ruhal Haque was present at the function.
Officials said the government would introduce eye care facilities under the project at four district hospitals and 33 upazila health complexes in Sylhet division.
They said around two-thirds of cataract patients in the country have no access to treatment facilities while every year some 150,000 new cases are recorded.
National Blindness and Low Vision Survey 2003 revealed that nearly 750,000 adults and 40,000 children were blind of whom 80 per cent had lost their sight by cataract which can be easily treated.
Experts said around 480,000 adults and children were suffering from severe visual impairment caused by uncorrected refractive error, which could be easily corrected with the use of spectacles.
Eye surgeons at the programme also said that primary eye care training would be provided to health workers of both non- government organisations and government community clinics through the programme.
Deen Mohammad Noorul Haque, director of National Institute of Ophthalmology, and Sharfuddin Ahmed, secretary general of Bangladesh Medical Association, among others, were present at the function.
Source : New Age
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