DAMASCUS, (SANA) - Syria marked the World Sight Day, usually held on the second Thursday in October with the aim of raising public awareness of blindness and vision impairment as major international public health issues.
Touring Eye Specialist Hospital in Damascus, Minister of Health Wael al-Halqi said the Ministry works hard to provide all treatment and diagnosis services for all patients with eye problems through two specialized hospitals in Aleppo and Damascus and special departments at the national hospitals.
The Minister added that the main challenge for the ministry is the cases that require corneal transplantation, more than 7000 cases, throughout the Syrian provinces, stressing the importance of the governmental and civil efforts to spread the culture of organ donation and its role in giving new hope for large numbers of people.
Minister al-Halqi indicated to the agreement signed between the Ministry of Health and al-Bustan Charity to import corneas from other countries within the next few months.
Resident Representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Syria Ibrahim Beit Al-Mal said that celebrating the World Sight Day is organized by the WHO and Vision 2020, the international initiative for Right to Sight which launched in 2000 to eliminate avoidable blindness.
According to the WHO statistics, 285 million people are visually impaired worldwide: 37 million are blind and 246 have low vision. Uncorrected refractive errors, cataracts, trachoma, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy are the five main causes of blindness in the East Mediterranean region. 90% of all visual impairment cases can be avoided or cured if diagnosed earlier.
R. Raslan / Ghossoun
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