JEDDAH: The Eye Consultants Clinic with the cooperation of Absar Association for Visual Impairment and Blindness, and under the supervision of the National Committee for the Prevention of Blindness, organized a free consultation day on Monday and an awareness lecture at the International Medical Center for the public, to celebrate and take part in World Sight Day.
"We organized this free consultation day with the cooperation of the Eye Consultant Clinic to raise the issue of visual disability to the forefront of the public's attention, as part of our social responsibility toward our society," said Mohamed Tawfiq Bellow, the general secretary of the Absar organization. "Most of the people we choose for the free screening were adults 45 years old and above, as they are the most at risk from visual problems and diseases," added Bellow.
He further explained that the program's initiative was directly driven to combat the fight against preventable blindness and reduce visual disability in the Kingdom by 2020, under the slogan of "Let's Work Together to Prevent Blindness.""We initially choose to allocate one day to give free eye consultations to people, however due to the large number of people who signed up for a consultation, we decided to extend the duration of the free consultation to ensure that everyone was screened. This is our social responsibility toward our nation, and we have previously provided several free consultations on many occasions," said Dr. Arshad Mancabo, an eye specialist at the Eye Consultants Clinic.
Dr. Talal Fadil, a senior consultant at the clinic undertook the examination and referred the patients according to their needs to specialist doctors within the clinic.
Dr. Mancabo said we should work together to stop blindness, which is preventable in many cases, as the most common cause of blindness is cataract- a physical change, associated with aging.
"Our main aim in celebrating World Sight Day, is to spread awareness amongst the public to eye diseases, and explain about issues such as glaucoma, cataract, and other diseases that effect the eye, such as diabetes, which is becoming a major problem in the Kingdom. Most people are unaware of how diabetes affects the eye, and that in turn poses a great threat to their vision. It is very important for the public to be aware of these facts, as prevention is better than the cure," Mancabo added.
Furthermore, "Many people are either unaware that their eye diseases are treatable, or simply can not afford the treatment. That is why we are working with charitable organizations to provide underprivileged people with the treatment they need," he explained.
The World Health Organization (WHO) released new statistics stating that 285 million suffer from visual impairment, 39 million are blind and 246 million have poor eyesight. Moreover, the statistics indicated that 90 percent of the people suffering from eye problems live in developing countries, and 80 percent of visual impairment can be avoided or cured.
Arab News
