04 January 2004	Sunday	11 Ziqa'ad 1424

KARACHI, Jan 3: Abject poverty and lack of public trust on ophthalmology units operating at rural health care outlets has led to a high incidence rate of cataract-induced blindness in the province.

Sources associated with the Prevention and Control of Blindness Programme for Sindh, talking to APP here on Saturday, said that cataract itself was a major eye problem in the country and equally affecting people of all age groups owing to varied factors.

"Delayed intervention has turned cataract-induced blindness as the commonest contributory factor for visual impairment in the country," they said, mentioning that a significant proportion of all blindness instances in the province could be blamed on cataract alone.

Cataract itself is attributed to direct and unprotected exposure of human eye to sun rays, often leading to ailment at comparatively much younger age.

Poverty and lack of awareness are preventing people from having access to food with high nutritional value, particularly Vitamin A, which intensifies the problem.

The sources regretted that despite the situation, public sector eye care outlets were yet to be utilized to their optimum mainly due to public misconceptions about the same besides absence of appropriate staff and equipment.

However, in order to address the situation, teams comprising seasoned eye surgeons were said to be regularly dispatched by the Prevention and Control of Blindness Cell, Sindh, to different, and mainly remotest, parts of the province to perform surgeries.

The initiative had been taken primarily to restore public's trust in the concerned ophthalmologists working in government health care centres as they are directly involved in the activity.- APP