'Cataract makes 10,000 blind a yr'
Around 10,000 new cases of blindness due to cataract occur every year in the country while over 64,000 in Dhaka city are blind, said a press release issued by DUCECP yesterday.
Around three lakh adults and one lakh children suffer from severe visual impairment caused by uncorrected refractive error, which could be easily cured with the use of spectacles.
This was revealed at a dissemination session on “Urban Eye Health Programme: Experiences of DUCECP”, organised by Dhaka Urban Comprehensive Eye Care Project (DUCECP) at the Press Institute of Bangladesh in the city.
The project has been providing improved eye care services free of cost to the city slum dwellers and hardcore poor people with eye complications.
So far more than 37,000 slum dwellers have regained their vision due to the project while 0.3 million got different types of eye care services.
Sightsavers with financial support of the 'Seeing is Believing', initiatives of Standard Chartered Bank, initiated DUCECP in October 2008.
Prof Din Mohammad Nurul Haque, director, National Institute of Ophthalmology and Hospital, and Dr Wahidul Islam, country director, Sightsavers spoke at the session.
Chairperson of the Project Management Committee Zahida Ispahani presided over the programme.
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