500,000 women suffering from blindness in Pakistan: Al-Shifa

Rawalpindi:The prevalence of blindness and vision impairment is higher in females than males while presently almost half a million women in Pakistan are suffering from blindness and vision impairment, said Brig. (r) Prof. Dr. Sabihuddin, Head of the Cataract Department at Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital here Thursday.

In a ceremony to celebrate June as ‘Cataract Awareness Month’, Dr. Sabihuddin informed that Al-Shifa Trust (AST) annually performs 52 thousand surgeries free of charge. He said that there are around 2.2 billion blind or visually impaired people in the world and the complication may have been avoided in at least 1 billion of these cases.

Vision impairment is four times higher in low- and middle-income ranges compared to high-income areas while according to WHO estimates, vision impairment results in an annual global productivity loss of $411 billion, posing a significant financial burden.

Dr Sabihuddin urged the government to set up more facilities to deal with the influx of eye patients. He noted that with the rising population and an increase in average age, the number of cataract patients is increasing in the country, and a large number of women have blindness having no access to eye facilities.

According to Dr. Sabihuddin, Pakistan is one of the top countries with diabetes patients resulting high rate of eye disease. He said cataracts are age-related degeneration and cannot be controlled, however, government should strengthen the eye departments in all state-run hospitals, including those established at the district level.

He informed that AST performs almost 100 to 120 surgeries daily and has thirty air-conditioned operation theatres, 25 expert doctors, six anaesthetists, and state-of-the-art diagnostic facilities.

Dr Sabihuddin stated that the outreach program frequently organizes surgical camps in remote areas, conducting almost 100 surgeries daily. "We have the best facilities and expert doctors to treat the complicated cases," he said, adding that ophthalmology and cataract surgery are the largest departments of the hospital, providing specialised care to patients with different conditions.

Dr. Sabihuddin said AST has all the latest technologies and expertise, and trust hospitals in Sukkur, Kohat, Muzaffarabad, and Chakwal are performing 52,000 cataract surgeries annually free of charge. He added that the Cataract Department has completed one million surgeries since its founding.