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| Waiting for their turn |
According to World Health Organization estimates Africa shares 19 per cent of the world’s blindness. There are 26.3 million people visually impaired in Africa majority of them is aged over 50 years. Furthermore, among 26.3 million there are 20.4 million with low vision and estimated to be blind, whereas two third of them are women. Most of the cases of blindness in the African Region are from avoidable causes such as cataract (50%), glaucoma (15%), corneal opacities (10%), trachoma (6.8%), childhood blindness (5.3%) and onchocerciasis (4%).
Unfortunately, the state of eye care in Africa stands at alarming levels comparative to the rest of the world. The main affected countries from the region are Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Gambia. There are various factors playing significant role to aggravate the particular disease in the region. Such as, poor practitioner-to-patient ratios, total absence of personnel eye-care, inadequate health facilities, and poor state funding for health, lack of educational programmes including higher population rate.
Ethiopia is the most affected country in the region with a population of 91 million, which is the second-most populous country in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to ORBIS International, 1.2 million Ethiopians are blind and 2.8 million have low vision. Eye care services are extremely limited throughout the country as there are only 95 ophthalmologists available for the population of 91million, particularly in rural areas there is no eye care service available. Even if available ophthalmologists work for 12 hours a day taking 2 hours time for single operation, they would be able to carry out 576 surgeries. The progress to fight against the blindness in the region would be extremely slow in that pace.
Moreover, low per capita income which is US$380 in FY 2010(GNI, Atlas Method) also prevents the masses to have access to the available health facilities. Low income among the population changes the priority order like they are more worried about for their food not health conditions. According to the recent data the budget allocation for the health sector in Ethiopia is US$144 million; health expenditures per capita are estimated at US$4.50, compared with US$10 on average in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2000 the country counted one hospital bed per 4,900 population and more than 27,000 people per primary health care facility. However, health care is disproportionately available in urban centres; in rural areas where the vast majority of the population resides, access to health care varies from limited to non-existent. Also the literacy rate in Ethiopia is only 35.9 which results in lack of awareness among people regarding hygiene, sanitation and nutrition and ultimately leads to potentially devastating diseases such as blindness.
African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) is a bigger partnership programme including 19 participating countries with effective and active involvement of the Ministries of Health and their affected communities, several international and local NGDOs, the private sector (Merck & Co., Inc.), donor countries and UN agencies.
The World Bank is the Fiscal Agent of the Programme and WHO is the Executing Agency of the Programme. The Community-Directed Treatment with Ivermectin (CDTI) is the delivery strategy of APOC. It empowers local communities to fight river blindness in their own villages, relieving suffering and slowing transmission. It has brought substantial achievements for onchocerciasis control in Africa. Using this approach over 68.4 million people were receiving regular treatment for onchocerciasis by end-2009, close to one million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) have been averted and the prevalence of infection has reduced by about 73% compared with pre-APOC levels. The programme which has been extended until 2015 intends to treat over 90 million people annually in 19 countries, protecting 115 million of population which is at risk of the blindness, and to prevent over 40,000 cases of blindness every year.
In addition to that there are many NGOs doing their best for overcoming blindness by providing support to local hospitals in terms of equipment, medicines, helping in setting up screening programmes to identify those people who are at risk and those who need treatment, developing eye treatment centres, training eye doctors.
However there is still high demand of the volunteer doctors to serve the region and provide cost affective eye care to the poor masses of the region. Also, pharmaceutical companies can play significant part to fight against the blindness by providing free medicines and cataract lenses.
AMWT is actively working for less fortunate and needy humanity around the globe for over 25 years. AMWT organizes free medical camps annually in various countries including Pakistan, Kashmir, Bangladesh, Gambia and Nigeria, Ethiopia and Somalia. AMWT has acknowledged the blindness problem in Ethiopia and taken the initiatives to arrange free eye camps for the rural community of the affected parts of the country. The reason of focusing Ethiopia is the highest prevalence of blindness comparative to other East African countries. Whereas, recent drought has deteriorated the health conditions in the region. AMWT strongly believes that by providing free eye care at the doorstep of rural masses would break the poverty blindness cycle.
The team of 50 doctors along the trained paramedical doctors would be coming from Pakistan where AMWT has network of 13 hospitals. Each medical camp will be fully equipped to handle up to 4,000 patients. It would cost £1000 to setup one free eye camp whereas one eye surgery will cost £35. AMWT is targeting 10000 blind people in Ethiopia during 2012. However; we are still looking for new partners and major donors to support us for fighting against blindness in Ethiopia.
By: Anam Jawad Lateef Ikhlaq Hussain
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