One million Ethiopians suffer unnecessary blindness By Anaclet RwegayuraPANA Correspondent

July 07, 2006

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 07/07 - Nearly one million Ethiopians are blind and about four million others are visually impaired largely from preventable causes, eye disease experts say.

By these statistics, the east African country is ranked among those with the highest rates of blindness in the world.

"This situation is due to lack of education on eye health care issues among the general public, and the rural population in particular," explains Dr. Wondu Alemayehu, country director of ORBIS International, a New York-based Flying Eye Hospital.

A team of ORBIS volunteer surgeons, globally sponsored by an alliance of business firms that include Standard Chartered Bank, United Airlines and courier FedEx, is currently on a two-week working visit to Ethiopia to train local ophthalmologists and ophthalmic nurses, among other eye care workers.

"We are here to pass on skills to Ethiopians who will train more eye care professionals within the country. Ethiopia needs skills and expertise to overcome this problem," Drew Boshell, director of the Flying Eye Hospital, told PANA.

Since its first programme in 1982, ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital has covered more than 70 developing countries, not just to treat the blind but also to spread the message of public awareness and advocacy that, in most cases, blindness results from preventable causes.

Causes of blindness in Ethiopia, according to experts, are cataract, trachoma, glaucoma, and corneal opacities, mainly as a result of measles infection and Vitamin A deficiency in childhood.

Much of the country`s blindness could be prevented or treated if the problem was moved up the agenda of health care issues.

"The high rate of blindness in Ethiopia is simply a community issue," Boshell said, emphasising proper sanitation, especially the use of toilets and access to safe water sources for the public.

"Though the common causes of blindness in this country are preventable and treatable, what we see here is a huge social tragedy.

"Children are susceptible to eye diseases because they don`t wash their faces and hands. Trachoma can be easily eradicated by proper sanitation," he said.

Children with impaired vision should get their eyes screened at health facilities where a physician can identify the problem and help restore their eyesight, Boshell advised.

The commitment of ORBIS International to overcome unnecessary blindness in Africa will succeed only if it gets full support from communities and leaders of the countries that are affected by this problem.

People don`t need to be blind if only they had access to health care facilities. The most important factor, however, is public awareness of the causes of blindness.

"At ORBIS we don`t target an individual. Our aim is to create a system within the country that will reach the blind for treatment and health education," said Wondu.

"The challenges are big but if the providers of public health care got seriously involved in fighting blindness, success is attainable."

According to ORBIS, 90 percent of the world`s blind live in developing countries.

With its hospital located in a modified DC-10 passenger jet aircraft, ORBIS has since 1982 helped restore sight to more than one million people and enhanced skills of 93,000 health care professionals.

It is estimated that 22.5 million children and adults have benefited from the multiplier effect of ORBIS programmes worldwide through the skills shared among the professionals or passed on to patients.

With the support of ORBIS, Ethiopia has embarked on a training programme of ophthalmologists, cataract surgeons, optometrists, technicians, nurses and a host of integrated eye care workers.

The organisation`s country office currently focuses on advocacy and public awareness, eye banking, institutional training, development of rural eye care services, biomedical engineering and research on trachoma as its major programme areas.

After setting up an eye bank at Menelik II Hospital in Addis Ababa in June 2003, the Ethiopian government issued an administrative directive that allows tissue harvesting in the country.

Though the directive allows the collection and processing of local corneas for transplant, the public needs more enlightenment regarding tissue donation.

Corneal tissues are now available at the bank for transplantation and 78 young Ethiopians have regained their sight by using locally harvested corneas, ORBIS Ethiopia country office confirmed.

After its visit to Ethiopia, Boshell said the Flying Eye Hospital would proceed to Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria. Its travel plan for next year includes Tanzania among other countries, he added.

Source: AP