Al-Shifa eliminating avoidable blindness

Lahore: Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital treated around six thousand patients in various eye camps held in Swat sponsored by the Pakistan Army.

These free eye camps were organized under the Community Outreach Program of the trust in collaboration with Pakistan Army (HQ 315 Brigade) in the month of September, according to a press release issued here today.

Moreover, 1716 patients were provided glasses free of cost while free medicines were given to 1396 patients and 807 patients were referred to Al-Shifa Trust eye Hospital for free treatment and surgery.

School Screening was also held in nine schools of Swat and a total of 3667 school children passed through child screening.

On the development, Lt Gen (Retd) Hamid Javaid, president of the trust said that keeping in view the increasing number of eye patients the trust has increased number of eye camps.

He said that around the world, every five seconds a person goes blind. A child goes blind every minute. To stop this cascade we are working hard.

He said that almost 480 people are developing eye disorders in Pakistan every day; around fourteen thousand people are exposing to eye diseases every month which means that a person is catching disease every three minutes which is distressing the whole society.

Pakistan has over three million population of blind that must be tackled on urgent basis, said Lt Gen (Retd) Hamid Javaid.

It may be mentioned that Al-Shifa is the only hospital in the country to conduct free eye camps on such a large scale. These camps were aimed at providing best eye care facilities for the needy at their doorsteps.

General Manager ACCO, Lt Col R Tariq Usman’s active involvement has made this screening a success.