Blindness among eldery raises new concern
JAKARTA (JP): The increase in life expectancy in the country has shifted the tendency of health problems from infectious diseases to degenerative ones, or those related to old age.
One of the diseases which experts say is a serious threat is blindness.
Reports have said there are some 2.4 million totally blind people across the country, or 1.2 percent of the population. The prevalence of people who are half blind is 2.1 percent, or 4.2 million people.
Most of the blind are elderly, although there are also blind children and youths, the reports reveal.
"Most cases resulted from cataracts, which usually afflict people over 40 years old," an ophthalmologist at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM), Nila Moeloek, told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Friday.
"And since life expectancy in the country is increasing, the condition has a trend to increase," Nila said.
Life expectancy of women here now stands at between 67.5 and 70 years old, while that of men is 65.
The number of Indonesians with cataracts, Nila said, increases from time to time.
"The problem is a lack of health services. Our country's geographical condition makes it more difficult to provide such services, especially in rural areas," she said.
Ophthalmologists commonly live in cities and their number remains low, she added without elaborating.
She said people in coastal areas were more prone to cataracts due to high exposure to ultraviolet rays.
Government and international charitable organizations, she said, have conducted some programs to rehabilitate people with cataracts.
"But it remains far below the target. Therefore, in several rural areas, general practitioners are trained to perform cataract surgery," she cited.
Wilardjo Margo Pranoto, a professor of medicine at the University of Diponegoro in Semarang, Central Java, said that blindness in old age caused high social and financial costs for the family.
"The prevalence has continued to increase ever since the government announced that blindness was a national catastrophe in 1967," Wilardjo told Antara on Thursday.
The government has provided free cataract surgery since 1985.
"But it can't cover all those with the affliction. In Central Java, we can only cure 500 cataract patients while the number of sufferers is much higher than that," Wilardjo said.
Those who sign up for free surgery always exceeds the target, he said.
According to Wilardjo, beside cataracts, blindness is also caused by diabetes.
"The prevalence is about 0.03 percent of the whole population. But I'm afraid it will increase with changes in diet," Wilardjo said. (hdn)