Cousin marriages main reason behind sight problems in infants

Rawalpindi

Almost two million people were prone to eye related diseases in Pakistan out of then eighty per cent could be cured with timely intervention. This was stated by President Al-Shifa Trust Lieutenant General (r) Hamid Javed here on Friday.

He said that one of the major obstacle in providing eye care to the needy is lack of the required facilities.

Briefing media, he said that Al-Shifa is trying best to serve as many patients as possible with focus on children.

Hamid Javed informed that ground breaking ceremony for the construction of a children eye hospital has already been performed by the President Mamnoon Hussain recently and that the project would be completed in next two years.

We have already started training doctors and support staff so that the largest children eye hospital in this region can serve masses in the best possible way.

Responding to questions, he said that Al-Shifa has taken new initiative for getting eye donations from the US and Canada. “Presently, around 60 operations for eye transplant are being conducted per month and we plan to enhance the number of transplants to 100 in the next six months” he maintained.

An eye transplant cost about Rs120,000 however, Al-Shifa categorized eye transplant operations into three groups. We try to conduct 20 eye transplants free of cost while next 20 are subsidized while 20 donations are provided to those people can bear full dues” he added.

At the occasion, Director of Al-Shifa Trust Brigadier (r) Rizwan Asghar said that cousin marriage is the main reason for high rate of eye diseases among newly born.

He said that founder of the trust late Jahandad Khan envisioned a specialised eye hospital for children in Pakistan which will become a reality within two years. It is Rs 01 billion project and the required amount has been donated by local philanthropists.  It is easy to cure eye disease in childhood rather to wait that result in complications, he said.