Cataract on the rise
Nadira GUNATILLEKE
"There are 500,000 cataract patients in Sri Lanka at present. Between
100,000 and 150,000 patients are badly affected and have cataract in
both eyes. Fifty percent of them are from under developed rural areas of
the country comprising low income families," a Health Ministry spokesman
said.
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Eye surgeon Dr Chamintha Amaratunge and other surgeons
performing cataract operations. |
According to the spokesman, those patients never come for surgeries
due to economic problems, family burdens and ignorance.
Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena has issued instructions to the
health authorities to conduct free surgeries for patients in their
villages without waiting for them to turn up at state hospitals.
"Under the Vision 2020 programme, free cataract operations were
carried out on 340 cataract patients in the new settlements in
Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, and Vavniya recently. All of these patients
were operated on during a period of three days and one surgery took only
90 seconds," the spokesman said. |
