Fifty patients suffering from cataract were sent to Cuba two weeks ago under the second phase of Mission Miracle, the eye care programme financed by the Cuban and Venezuelan governments.
According to a press release from the Government Information Agency (GINA) a team of Cuban and Venezuelan eye care specialists is here to provide additional support to the staff posted at the East Bank Demerara Regional Hospital in diagnosing acute eye conditions. Minister within the Ministry of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran said patients are screened at the hospital and a number of procedures are being done. “Mission Miracle is a very ambitious eye-care programme … aimed at handling all cases in preventative blindness among citizens of the Caribbean and Latin America,” he said.
During the first phase of the programme more than 40,000 persons were screened country-wide and 5,000 were sent to Cuba for surgery. Special attention was also placed on remote and vulnerable areas and in indigenous communities, GINA said. The minister said before the mission private practitioners were charging over $250,000 per eye for eye surgery. “Therefore this has been a significant help to poor people who have had difficulties with their eyesight especially with cataract.” Ramsaran said the mission also addresses other eye complaints but on a smaller scale.
He also said that because of the massive screening done in 2006 and 2007 the ministry has not found any cataract cases therefore the mission will move to the other centres soon.
