OVER 23% of Zimbabweans are visually impaired, with eye complications being among the top five common diseases in the country, a senior health official has said.
By Phyllis Mbanje
Ministry of Health and Child Care non-communicable diseases deputy director Clemenciana Bakasa yesterday said limited funding had frustrated efforts to address the problem.
Bakasa made the remarks during the handover of eye equipment worth $100 000 by the Japanese government to Norton Eye Unit.
“These conditions contribute to poverty as the visually impaired people cannot perform to their maximum capacity,” Bakasa said.
Speaking at the same event, Norton Eye Unit resident surgeon Ute Dibb said the centre had been operating without a qualified doctor and with archaic equipment for the past nine years.
“Most communities were not being serviced because there was no vehicle for outreach programmes, but with the donation which includeS a vehicle and outreach equipment, we will be able to reach many people,” Dibb said.
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Japanese ambassador to Zimbabwe Yoshi Tendai Hiraishi said the equipment was procured through “The project for the improvement of eye care facility in Mashonaland West” and would greatly improve the eye care services.
“It is significant that now people can access more accurate and rapid medical services at the unit and the staff will be able to carry out regular outreach activities using the vehicle,” he said. Norton Eye Unit, which was built under the Lions Sight First programme during the 1980s and is currently being run by the Council for the Blind, is the only facility that offers eye services in Mashonaland West Province.
Twenty-one eye patients were operated on on Tuesday, and they could not contain their joy when the bandages were taken off their eyes. Most of the patients, who were elderly, broke into song and dance during the eye equipment handover ceremony.
Clifford Mlambo, one of the beneficiaries, said he was excited to regain his eyesight a year after both his eyes were hit by cataracts.
“I am very happy to be given an opportunity to once again appreciate how beautiful my wife is,” Mlambo said.
