German NGO helps restore poor people's sight<\/p>\n
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Rosada, 64, appeared anxious as she waited her turn in the
\nsurgery of the Universitas Kristen Indonesia (UKI) Hospital in
\nEast Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Accompanied by her daughter, Rosada has come all the way from
\nPintu Air in Central Jakarta because she heard there was cheap
\ncataract surgery available at the hospital.<\/p>\n
For only Rp 500,000 (about US$50) and a letter from her
\ncommunity leader, Rosada will be able to have a cataract removed
\nfrom her left eye and have her sight restored. The normal price
\nof cataract surgery is between Rp 4 million and Rp 7 million.<\/p>\n
\"I'm an old woman. I was resigned to the fate of being half-
\nblind when I heard about this program. I would never have been
\nable to raise the money for surgery otherwise,\" Rosada explained.<\/p>\n
A cataract is an opacity on the lens of the eye that blocks
\nlight from entering and thus causes blindness. It is mainly
\ncaused by aging, but can also result from low nutrition intake
\nand a lot of exposure to sunlight.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, cataracts are the single biggest cause of
\nblindness, and at 1.5 percent of the population, the country also
\nhas the highest prevalence of blindness in the region.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, cataract surgery is a relatively simple --
\nthough highly sensitive -- procedure that takes only 20 to 30
\nminutes to conduct. But with only about 800 ophthalmologists in
\nthe country -- 25 percent of those in Jakarta and 68 percent in
\nJava -- very few people are operated on.<\/p>\n
\"In 2003 alone, the backlog of people who are blind due to
\ncataracts is about 1.5 million, and this is rapidly growing,\" the
\nhead of UKI's ophthalmology division, J.H.A. Mandang, told The
\nJakarta Post on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
He said that currently the country's ophthalmologists were
\nonly able to conduct 350 cataract operations per million people
\nper year, while the ideal cataract surgical rate (CSR) for a
\ndensely populated country such as Indonesia is 3,000.<\/p>\n
Germany-based non-governmental organization Christian Blind
\nMission International (CBMI) has cooperated with various
\ninstitutions in Indonesia since 1978 to prevent and cure
\nblindness, including Airlangga University and the Ministry of
\nHealth.<\/p>\n
It began providing low-cost cataract operations in
\ncollaboration with the UKI Hospital in 1994.<\/p>\n
\"We started fairly simple, but now have five professional
\nophthalmologists, and have treated more than 600 patients this
\nyear,\" said Mandang, who is also CBMI's regional office advisor
\nfor Indonesia.<\/p>\n
He expects other hospitals and ophthalmologists to follow suit
\nin the hope of bringing the number of blind people down to 1.5
\nmillion in 2020 in line with the World Health Organization
\n(WHO)'s Vision 2020 global initiative, which Indonesia joined in
\n2000.<\/p>\n
Vitreo-retinal surgeon Gilbert W.S. Simanjuntak, a volunteer
\nophthalmologist at the UKI Hospital, said that despite the
\ncharitable nature of the program, the technology and expertise
\nprovided at the hospital were quite advanced.<\/p>\n
For Rp 500,000, a cataract patient is given a manual
\nextracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE), where the lens of the
\neye is removed while the elastic capsule that covers the lens is
\nleft partially intact to allow implantation of an intraocular
\nlens (IOL). With this procedure, patients no longer need to use
\nthick eyeglasses or contact lenses as in the case of older
\nprocedures.<\/p>\n
\"We have quite a high success rate here, and patients may even
\nget 100 percent of their eyesight back provided they have no
\nother complications such as glaucoma,\" Gilbert said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/german-ngo-helps-restore-poor-peoples-sight-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}