ETHIOPIA: Increased efforts to prevent blindness

Photo: Dagnachew Teklu/IRIN

Former US President Bill Clinton (middle) at a health centre during his recent visit to Ethiopia.

ADDIS ABABA, 21 July 2006 (IRIN) - The Ethiopian government is to increase efforts to prevent and treat blindness, which afflicts a large number of people across the country, said Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Meles was speaking after visiting a cataract surgery training programme provided for Ethiopian ophthalmologists by the ORBIS International flying eye hospital. Some 40 local ophthalmologists attended the training. The flying eye hospital carries treatment facilities and an operating room, where operations performed by volunteer surgeons are relayed to an on-board classroom and to remote conference rooms attended by local doctors to enhance their skills. "I am very impressed with the work ORBIS has been engaged in," Meles said. "I would like to assure you of my full support and appreciation." ORBIS International Medical Director, Douglas Officials, urged the Ethiopian government to devote more resources to blindness prevention and make it - especially trachoma control - a health priority. According to ORBIS, nearly 37 million people worldwide are blind or visually impaired, of whom 90 percent live in developing countries. Many of these cases are preventable. ORBIS, an international non-governmental organisation, would spend close to US $10 million on blindness-prevention projects in rural areas of Ethiopia, including provision of surgical equipment and further training for ophthalmologists. The organisation's head in Ethiopia, Wound Alemayehu, said the high rates of blindness and visual impairment in Ethiopia had put pressure on socio-economic development. An estimated 75 percent of blindness cases were caused by preventable and curable diseases, he added. Meanwhile, the Bill Clinton Foundation is to equip 3,200 health centres so they can treat 25,000 people each. Former US President Bill Clinton, who visited the country last week, said his organisation would increase its support for health development programmes in Ethiopia. dt/mw/eo