Saturday 11th August (Part 2)

I did not know whether to be proud or appalled that Sightsavers funds 50% of all cataract operations in Bangladesh, and 100% of all low vision services. The Cataract Surgical Rate (CSR) needed to deal with the current backlog and incidence rate is between 2,400 and 3,000 per million people per year, compared to around 1,000 being achieved at the moment

Attention turned to the Bangladesh Childhood Cataract Campaign, where it was very pleasing to see that we are well on target for this year. I was quite surprised at the age profile of the children treated – only 25% were under 5, and more than 25% were between eleven and fifteen. Apparently some sight is restored even for this older group, which I had not appreciated.

At this stage we took a break from the office to visit an outreach camp for the Dhaka Urban eyecare project. This was held in a school near a number of the slum areas. Patients came to the school for examination, and if they were found to have cataract they were checked for hypertension, diabetes and any problems with tear ducts then those who could demonstrate they were poor were transported directly to the hospital for the operation, free of charge.

In the half day before our visit they had identified twenty patients, including a 30 year old woman with bilateral cataracts whom I met. She had had problems for a couple of years and was tremendously excited at the prospect of recovering her sight.