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"Stand by poor eye patients" -Roundtable Speakers urge well-off people

Speakers at a sharing session yesterday urged the society's well-off section to extend help for the treatment of poor eye patients, as every year around 1.5 lakh people of the contract cataract, a major contributor to blindness.

More than 7.5 lakh people are blind in the country, and of them 6.5 lakh have lost sight due to the category of cataract, which is fully curable, said M Nurun Nabi, project coordinator, Dhaka Urban Comprehensive Eye Care Project (DUCECP).

Over 80 percent of the total blindness in the country is caused by curable cataract, he said, while making a presentation at the sharing session on “Dhaka Urban Eye Health: Experience of DUCECP”, organised by DUCECP in association with Sightsavers and Standard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh, at The Daily Star office in the capital.

Cataract is a medical condition that involves the clouding or opacification of the natural lens of the eye, causing impairment of vision or blindness.

Nurun Nabi also revealed a disturbing fact that 90 percent of the country's eye specialists and their assistants live in towns and cities, leaving the vast urban people without eye care.

To help eye patients, the speakers also urged coordinated effort from public and private sectors.

Sanjida Khanam, a lawmaker from Dhaka-4 constituency, assured that she would raise the issue in parliament to increase the allocation in the next budget for eye care.

In his speech, Prof Dr Deen Mohammad Noorul Huq, director of National Institute of Ophthalmology, stressed the need for conducting fresh surveys on the country's blind.

For the first time, such survey was conducted in 2000, which found over 7 lakh people blind in Bangladesh, but no survey has been done afterwards, he said.

Dr Deen Mohammad also said the country lacked sufficient number of surgeons for performing eye operations, so more doctors should be trained on this skill.

Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star, who presided over the session, pointed at the prospective role of banks in treating poor eye patients.

If over 40,000 people are treated with the help of one bank (like Standard Chartered), 10 more banks could help four lakh people restore their eyesight.

Mahfuz Anam, also honorary chairperson of the project advisory committee of DUCECP, put forward some proposals for the implementation of DUCECP.

This eye care project can inform business chambers like FBCCI, BGMEA and managing directors or chairmen of banks how cheaply they could return vision to people, he said.

For creating awareness, the project can take the help of television channels and editors of different dailies, he said, adding that The Daily Star would host the programmes.

Stressing public private partnership in DUCECP, lawmaker Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said the government could not undertake many projects due to lack of budgetary allocation.

Eye care is a mammoth task, so efforts only from the government and NGOs are not enough, Dr Wahidul Islam, country director of Sightsavers, said, laying importance on the role of corporate social responsibility in this connection.

Zahida Ispahani, chairperson of DUCECP, said it was a matter of regret that people remained without eyesight, although in most cases, blindness was preventable.

But due to financial constraints, many blind people cannot regain eyesight, she said.

Brig Gen M Mofizur Rahman, psc, P Eng (retd), lead consultant of R&G Group, pointed out that some people were neither solvent nor beggars. They cannot afford expensive eye surgeries though they are not poor, he said, adding that those people should be offered treatment.

Prof Khaleda Khanam, general secretary, Bangladesh National Society for the Blind (BNSB), observed that DUCECP was required to extend to rural areas, as some blind people spent their whole life without even knowing that their blindness was curable.

Launched in 2005, DUCECP will continue till 2013 in Dhaka.

With the support from Sightsavers and Standard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh, DUCECP has been operating with four implementing hospitals--Islamia Eye Hospital, Bangladesh National Society for the Blind, Ad-din Hospital, and Salauddin Specialised Hospital Ltd.

DUCECP has so far conducted more than 40,000 surgeries on poor eye patients.

Source: The Daily Star