- AMWT® SOCIAL NEWS
Cataract Surgery
Introduction
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors. Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness. There are 285 million people visually impaired worldwide: 39 million are blind and 246 million have low vision. Without increased efforts to prevent blindness, this figure is set to double over the next 25 years. Some 90% of blindness occurs in the developing world and two out of every three people who are blind are women. Whereas 75% of global blindness is preventable or treatable. However, 90% of the world’s visually impaired live in developing countries. According to WHO (World Health Organisation) estimates, 80% of all visual impairment can be avoided or cured.
According to the latest survey by National Blindness Prevalence (NBP), there are 1.49 to 1.54 million people estimated blind in Pakistan. Furthermore, there are 945,000 blind people in Punjab; 310,000 in Sindh; and 85,000 in Balochisatan and 183,000 in the North Western Province. Most of this blindness is preventable and/or treatable. Approximately 70% of people affected by blindness in Pakistan live in remote areas of the country and are unable to travel to cities where the majority of services are located.
CATEGORY |
DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
|
There are approximately 1.54 million blind people in Pakistan. |
Number of Curable Blind |
Blindness is one of the major health problems in Pakistan draining both its human and economic resources. Around 1.54 million people are blind and 4% of the world’s blind people live in Pakistan.1.2 million of blind people could be cured if appropriate services for the blind would be more widely distributed. |
Prevalence of Curable Blind |
Eighty percent of the blindness in Pakistan is curable. |
Most Common Types of Curable Blindness |
The two most important treatable causes of blindness are cataract (8.6%) and glaucoma (7.1%). Others include refractive error (2.7%) and diabetic retinopathy (0.2%).Trachoma is still endemic in parts of the country, and a recent rapid assessment found that 64.8% of individuals required trichiasis surgery. |
Age Range of Affected Population |
The prevalence of blindness by age groups are as follows: <15 years of age 0.08%, 15–49 years 0.2%, >50 years 3.4%. |
Gender Breakdown of Affected Population |
Female/male ratios indicate that women are more likely to have a visual impairment than men in Pakistan. A vast majority of women suffer from blindness due to non-availability of eye care facilities close to their homes and because they have less freedom to travel to other cities for treatment .Overall, 4.8% of the women have a visual acuity of <6/60 compared with 5.0% of the men, but with age stratification, all women older than 40 years had a higher prevalence of blindness. |
City/Rural Breakdown of Affected Population |
The largest number of blind population is concentrated in rural areas. |
Causes of Blindness |
Poverty, family/genetic factors, illiteracy/low levels of education, living in rural areas are main causes of blindness in Pakistan. |
Awareness of curable blindness/different types of treatment |
Less affluent and people living in rural areas had lower awareness of curable blindness because of high levels of illiteracy, lower access to healthcare facilities and doctors, and other causes. |
The causes of visual impairment
According to WHO estimates, the most common causes of blindness around the world are as follows:
- Cataracts (47.9%)
- Glaucoma (12.3%)
- Age-related macular degeneration (8.7%)
- Corneal opacity (5.1%)
- Diabetic retinopathy (4.8%)
- Childhood blindness (3.9%)
- Trachoma (3.6%)
- Onchocerciasis (0.8%)
What is Cataract Surgery and Treatment
Globally, uncorrected refractive errors are the main cause of visual impairment; cataracts (47.9%) remain the leading cause of blindness in middle and low-income countries. With cataract surgery; eye's cloudy natural lens is removed and replaced with a clear artificial lens implant (called an intraocular lens or IOL). Cataract surgery is often performed as an outpatient procedure and does not require an overnight hospital stay.
If vision is only slightly blurry, a change in eyeglass prescription may be all needed for a while. However, after changing eyeglass prescription, if patient still not able to see well enough will be considered for cataract surgery. Before surgery, the length of eye is measured which is called an A-scan, and the curve of cornea will be measured in a technique called keratometry. These measurements help to select the proper lens implant for eye. There are also various lens options available but normally we use standard lens.
Cataract Surgery Costs
Al-Mustafa Welfare Trust organizes hundreds of free eye camps around the world every year. The cost of one cataract surgery is £35 which enables deprived and deserving individual to experience this world once with his own eyes.
Cataract surgery helps to break poverty-blindness cycle
Blindness has profound human and socioeconomic consequences. The costs of lost productivity and of rehabilitation and education of the blind constitute a significant economic burden for the individual, the family and society. Poverty and blindness are positively interrelated. Blindness causes the poverty and poverty again leads towards having no access to medication.
In developing regions such as South East Asia, East Africa blindness is associated with poverty; lower access to eye care services is one contributory of main factor. To reduce blindness, strategies targeting poor people are needed. These interventions may have an impact on deprivation in developing part of the world. Al-Mustafa has helped 50,000 people to come out of poverty-blindness cycle since 1985. Some of 50% were women and elderly people. Supporting blind people to restore their eye sights also helps to achieve the higher educational and income rates at individual and national levels.
Figure 2: Pictorial represents how poverty leads to blindness
The potential beneficiaries from Free Eye Camps
These camps can support up to 16,000 people who can receive minor treatments during screening tests as well as support up to 500 people to receive cataract surgeries and get there eye sight restored.
People aged 50 and over
About 65% of all people who are visually impaired are aged 50 and older, while this age group comprises about 20 % of the world's population. With an increasing elderly population in many countries, more people are at risk of age-related visual impairment. Our free camps have acknowledged that there have been 40 percent elderly people getting free cataract surgeries.
 |
Mr Bashir Ahmed is 58 years old from the rural areas of Mazafargur (Pakistan) and has no means of livelihood. He has 6 family members to look after. He got free cataract operation during our free eye camps for the flood victims of Mazafargur in 2011. He is now happy that can read Quran and also actively participate in day to day activities. He will also start supporting his family for farming and looking after cattle as source of livelihood. |
Women
According to our recent research there are twice as many women in the world who are blind as men. There are two out of every three people in the world who are blind are women. Among others the leading reasons is that women tend to be last in line for medical care in the developing world. Women and girls who are blind are doubly disadvantaged – by their gender and their disability. They are denied equal access to health services, education and employment. Therefore, they are less able to care for themselves and their family. Consequently, women are at far greater risk of social exclusion and abuse and the stigma associated with a disability such as blindness can have a huge impact on marriage prospects. Thus, at Al-Mustafa Welfare Trust we screen blind women on priority basis for free eye surgeries which enables them to look after their families and to play active part in day to day activities. During our last 25 years free camps surgeries there have been 50% women patients getting free treatment.
Children
An estimated 19 million children are visually impaired globally. Of these, 12 million children are visually impaired due to refractive errors, a condition that could be easily diagnosed and corrected. 1.4 million are irreversibly blind for the rest of their lives. Children are the potential future force for the development process of any nation. Therefore, we provide free surgery and treatment on a priority basis to the deserving and deprived children of the developing world.
You can make an SMS donation to support our free eye clinics by texting the following codes to 70070:
EYES35 £10 for a £10 donation to contribute towards the cost of an eye surgery
You can make an alternative single or regular donation by visiting our JustGiving page:
https://www.justgiving.com/almustafawelfaretrust/donate
