‘Cataract blindness on the rise’

Nethali Struys

It is revealed that around 100,000 persons end up blind due to cataract every year in Sri Lanka, while this amount globally is estimated at around 18 million.

A number of countrywide programmes have been launched to mark ‘World Blind Day’ on October 13, said Health Ministry Additional Secretary Dr Palitha Mahipala at a press conference held at the Health Education Bureau yesterday.

The programmes have been carried out under the theme of “Preventing blinding by cataract ”. Under these programmes a free eye checkup clinic for school van drivers in the Western Province has been organized.

Further, 100 free cataract operations are to be performed in the Kandy hospital, while all other eye hospitals islandwide are to perform at least 15 free operations. The Kilinochchi General Hospital has performed 350 operations to mark ‘World Blind Day’, on October 10 and 11.

Dr Mahipala pointed out that around 285 million persons face visual defects due to various reasons around the world and out of that, 39 million end up being permanently blind. Statistics have also shown that one person goes blind every 12 seconds, in the world.

Cataract causes blindness in 82 percent of people over the age of 50. Around 75,000 cataract operations are performed in Sri Lanka annually.

Under the five year project implemented in 2002 by the Vision 2020 Secretariat to prevent all types of preventable blindness by 2020, tremendous progress has been made by eye units islandwide.

Accordingly, eye units have been set up at the Kantale, Balapitiya, Kegalle, Horana and Ridgeway Children’s Hospitals.

The number who had become blind due to refractive errors in the eye is 18,000 while around 160,000 schoolchildren suffer from some sort of eye problem, Dr Mahipala said.

Around 15,000 persons had become blind due to Glaucoma and another 6,000 had become blind due to diabetes. The number of persons who became blind due to old age is around 11,000. Around 400,000 suffer from the condition called low vision.

The majority of the blind are poor and most are females. But when comparing with the past there is a significant improvement in eye care facilities in the country, he added.