Three organizations provide free eye care to people in Upper East

By Jerry Azanduna, GNA

Yorogu (UER), Nov. 14, GNA - The Himataya Cataract Project (HCP), Ghana Health Service and the Presbyterian Eye Clinic are partnering to provide free eye care service to people with eye diseases including cataract in the Upper East Region.

The team of 23 Eye Specialist including Doctors and Nurses from Ghana and the United States started the one week services on Monday, at the Presbyterian Eye Clinic at Yorogu in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region, to provide eye care services such as surgery.

The project aims at providing sight to people to enable them live independent and productive lives.

Dr Oscar Debrah, the Ghana Country Representative of the HCP, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Yorogo, said the team was expected to serve over 500 people in the Region.

He said the Team had set out to reduce the rate of cataract prevalence in the country as it was the cause of 50 per cent of the over 200,000 cases of blindness, affecting 0.74 per cent of the population.

He said screening exercise in the districts across the Region was ongoing, to identify people with eye diseases and those who were likely to have problems with sight in the future, for treatment.

He urged the people to take the opportunity and go for screening and treatment.

Dr James Addy, the Head of the Eye Care Unit at the Ghana Health Service and the National Prevention of Blindness, said the project covered the entire country and was targeting about 7,000 people for treatment, but would target a minimum of 50,000 cases in future, in order to reduce the prevalence of Cataract in the country.

He said the team was committed to performing perfect surgeries and could conduct about hundred cases per day.

About 90 per cent of cataract cases were caused by old age, trauma, hereditary and diabetes.

Mr Peter Abugri, the Coordinator of the Presbyterian Eye Clinic at Yorogu, said the project had attracted the highest number of clients to the Clinic and would help solve the prevailing eye health problems in the Region.

He assured the team of the commitment of the Eye Clinic to supporting the HCP project achieve its intended purpose.

He urged development partners to help the Clinic with logistics, human resource, and transport in order to perform its mandated task.

The Yorogu Clinic is a referral centre, which receives over 100 eye health cases a day and performs 30 surgeries daily.

GNA

Read Full Story