Monday, May 18, 2009

The blind see the light of day in Debre Markos

Beginning in 2004, and after a secondary eye unit in the Debre Markos Hospital was built and furnished in 2007 by Christian Blind Mission (CBM) International and Rotary Club Stiftland, about 50,000 eye patients had received various treatments. About 5,000 of the 50,000 were those who had been blinded by trachoma, glaucoma and cataract but who are now able to see the light of day as a result of a simple surgery at the clinic.

Eye patients come to the Debre Markos clinic from nearby towns and villages and from as far away as Gondar and Wollga, Dr Mulu Lisanework, senior prevention of blindness program officer of CBM told The Reporter. The fact that patients come to the clinic from the vicinity of Debre Markos in great number testifies to the quality of service the clinic offers and is a clear indication that blindness is a serious problem in northern Ethiopia, Dr Mulu said.

The eye unit in the Debre Markos Hospital is, therefore, engaged in accomplishing two missions: prevention and cure of blindness. And after a visit to the eye unit on Monday, CBM believes that it is doing what it was intended to do in the Amhara Regional State and is well on its way to achieving Vision 2020, the elimination of blindness by the year 2020.

In addition to the services Dr Yilikal Alemu, head of the eye unit and his assistants, provide at the clinic, patients benefit from the involvement of about ten nurses trained by CBM to go around villages and towns checking on peoples’ eyes, identifying what type of problem they have and referring them to the clinic for the appropriate kind of treatment.

Until a few years ago, most eye patients in the Amhara region had to travel to Addis Ababa for treatment or be doomed to blindness for the rest of their life if they were too poor to pay for transport, lodgings and hospital fees.

Now, some eye patients do not come to the clinic simply because they can not afford to pay the bus fare to Debre Markos. Therefore, when patients can not come to the clinic, the clinic goes to the patients.

Instead of waiting for all patients to come to the clinic, Dr Yilical and his team travel every month to Mota and Finote Selam within the Amhara region carrying all the necessary surgical equipment and spend about five days serving about 100 people a day according to their needs. That the clinic was opened in Debre Markos has been so ideal for its services to reach out to a great number of patients in Amhara which is one of the regions in Ethiopia most severely affected by blindness and other eye diseases.

Dr Mulu says that owing to the quality of services the clinic offers, its reputation has spread far and wide through patients who have been treated there and were satisfied with the results. The eye unit employs a cataract surgery technique called sutureless, which uses no stitches. This is currently the most advanced technique of eye surgery being used in India and Nepal and recommended for most developing countries.

Presently, CBM is training optical technicians in the Debre Markos Hospital to work in its optical workshop which is well furnished with the latest machines, lenses and frames.

Compared to the extent of the problem of blindness in Ethiopia, so far not much has been done and CBM’s contribution alone, although valuable, is not enough, Dr Mulu says. She recommends that the government deal with it seriously enough, if not as seriously as it is dealing with malaria and tuberculosis.

CBM has constructed and furnished secondary eye units in Jimma University, Debre Markos Hospital, Debre Berhan Hospital, Felege Hiwot Hospital, Arba Minch Hospital, Yigalem Hospital and Pawe in Benishangul Gumuz.

It is building similar secondary eye units in Woldiya, Amhara Regional State. One of CBM’s main fields of engagement in Ethiopia is “Vision 2020: The Right to Sight,” a global initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness by the year 2020. To accomplish this, CBM involves itself in infrastructure and human resource development and disease control within eye medical care.

Christian Blind Mission is an international non-governmental organization which works through partners, enabling them to provide high quality preventive, curative, educational and rehabilitative services.
In a related development, Dr Mulu told The Reporter that the eye unit which CBM had built, furnished and inaugurated in February in Chiro, Oromia Regional Sate, but was closed the same day because the regional Health Bureau had not assigned a physician, just started services on April 27 because a new graduate ophthalmologist agreed to work there.

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