Govt plans to conduct childhood blindness survey

The government plans to conduct a survey on childhood blindness to determine the number of country's blind children.
Prof AHM Enayet Hussain of National Eye Care under the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) disclosed the government plan at a symposium held in Dhaka on Thursday, a press statement said.
Orbis International organised the symposium titled "Universal Eye Health: Orbis Initiatives and Experience in Bangladesh" at Bangladesh University of Health Sciences (BUHS) at Mirpur.
Prof Enayet said the government has also plan to enhance capacity of medical colleges and offer follow-up services to district hospitals to tackle blindness and eye ailments.
He presented a paper on "Universal Eye Health: Focus on Childhood Blindness" at the symposium.
Dr Fayazul Islam of Orbis International presented another paper on "Diabetic Retinopathy Initiatives and Orbis Experience", Dr Lutful Hussain of Orbis on "Tele Medicine - Cyber Sight" and Mohammad Shamsul Islam of Chittagong Eye Infirmary & Training Complex (CEITC) on 'Utilization of PEC by the Community".
Shusmita Khan of Eminence and Md Shoaibe Anwar of Orbis presented two other papers.
Orbis International's Country Director for Bangladesh Dr Munir Ahmed chaired the symposium and Orbis Director of Programs Mohammed Alauddin moderated it.
Dr Fayazul in his presentation said 25 per cent of diabetic patients have Diabetic Retinopathy (DR).  Referring to an estimate of World Diabetic Federation, he said the number of diabetic patients in Bangladesh would reach 11.1 million in 2030.
Dr Munir laid emphasis on public private partnership (PPP) and integration of programmes of local and international NGOs for reaching out the eye care services to the people. He said universal eye care would remain unfulfilled unless 'we can address geographical issues'.
The symposium was held during the two-day fifth Regional Public Health Conference which was inaugurated by Brac founder Fazle Hasan Abed on Wednesday.
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