July 30, 2007	Monday	Rajab 14, 1428

ISLAMABAD, July 29: There are 4.5 million visually impaired people in Pakistan with about 800,000 of them suffering from cataract, according to a recent survey report.

This was revealed by Dr Tayyab Afghani, a senior eye surgeon at Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Rawalpindi, while talking to mediapersons in the hospital on Saturday.

He said cataract was clouding of the eye’s naturally clear lens. “Your eye becomes like a window that is frosted or yellowed. If your vision is blurry, visit your ophthalmologist (eye specialist) for an examination. This will also rule out any other causes for blurred vision,” he added.

Cataract is a common cause of vision loss, especially in old age, but it is curable. About the symptoms, Dr Afghani said the common symptoms of cataract were painless blurring of vision, light sensitivity, poor night vision, double vision in one eye, needing a brighter light to read, colours looking faded or yellow.

Cloudiness and pattern of a cataract can vary. If cloudiness is to the side of your field of vision, you may not be aware that you have a cataract. Cataracts can be congenital or can result from traumatic injuries, local or systemic disease, or the aging process (senile cataracts).

Of the several surgical procedures and lenses used in treatment, the most exciting advance is extra capsular cataract extraction followed by insertion of a posterior chamber intraocular lens.

The surgeon said: “Currently in Pakistan we need to do half a million surgeries per year to tackle this menace but at present about 400,000 operation are being carried out, which means every year a backlog of 100,000 million is added.

This backlog is due to many reasons, such as due to illiteracy, lack of proper health facilities and old customs or myths. The rural population particularly is very much exposed to such eye complications.

He said: “In some way I would hold the health professionals responsible for such misconceptions as they are not delivering and providing information to the general public regarding the latest treatment methodologies adopted for the eye related complications. He said there were different misconceptions regarding the treatment of cataract, which was one of the most common eye disease.

The first and most common misconception about cataract is that it can be removed without surgery through medicine and eye drops. This is absolutely wrong. At present the only treatment for this disease is surgery.

The second misconception is that cataract can be treated through laser. So far, cataract cannot be removed by laser.

The third common misconception is that artificial lenses or IOL can break, become dirty or cause irritation. These conceptions are totally absurd.

Dr Afghani said that there were many other misconceptions about cataract.

He asserted that cataract did not spread from one eye to the other, nor was it a cause of irreversible blindness. How quickly the cataract develops varies among individuals and may even be different between the two eyes.