Blindness among eldery raises new concern
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)