Cataracts common in C. Kalimantan

Cataracts common in C. Kalimantan

PALANGKA RAYA, Central Kalimantan: The number of blind people in the province has reached more than 26,000, or 1.5 percent of the local population, due to the shortage of ophthalmologists.

Wildan, chief of the public health service section at the local health ministry office, said on Saturday that many local people who had suffered blindness caused by cataracts and vitamin A deficiency could not gain access to medical treatment, including surgery, because of the shortage of ophthalmologists in certain areas.

"At present, the province has just one, in the provincial capital," he said.

Wildan said that of more than 13,500 people suffering cataracts, over 1,700 had gone blind.

He said the provincial government, in cooperation with the Dharmais Foundation in Jakarta, would carry out a free eye care program to provide medication, including surgery, for cataract sufferers in the province.

Such a program has been in operation since 1993 and a total of 2,192 cataract sufferers have benefited from it. --Antara