Free eye surgery for Chivi, UZ

AT LEAST 150 eye-patients will this week benefit from free surgery in Harare via an initiative by the University of Zimbabwe and Government; while scores of people from Chivi will also get cataract treatment during a two-day outreach initiated by Council for the Blind Zimbabwe and the Health and Child Care Ministry.

The Harare programme — the second this year by the UZ College of Health Sciences — follows a similar one in Chiweshe, Mashonaland Central.

Eye cataract surgery in Zimbabwe costs between US$300 and US$800 in both public and private health institutions.

A cataract is the clouding of the eye lens which prevents clear vision and is the most common cause of preventable blindness worldwide.

According to the World Health Organisation, cataracts are responsible for 51 percent of blindness cases, affecting close to 20 million people.

UZ Department of Ophthalmology chairperson Dr Fungai Mukome said patients from different parts of Zimbabwe had registered to benefit from the free surgery.

“We had targeted 130 patients but we have 150 patients now who are seeking the free service being offered on 18 and 19 July,” he said. “The patients are coming from all over the country and we hope the programme will be a success.”

Professor Rangarirai Masanganise, an ophthalmologist who is part of the team that will conduct the surgeries, said they would provide eye assessment services and take corrective action, or advise patients on what to do.

He said the plan was to extend the programme to other parts of Zimbabwe.

“The decision on where to go depends on a number of factors like the availability of sponsorship, but we want to distribute our services across the country,” said Prof Masanganise.

In Chivi, surgeries will be performed at the district hospital by a team of eight nurses led by two renowned eye specialists — doctor’s Archibald Kufa and Bonface Macheka.

Dr Kufa, who is resident at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, said the rural populace, constituting more than 60 percent of Zimbabweans, largely could not afford such services.

“We are embarking on what we call an Eye Camp on 20 and 21 July, where we are talking about going to hospitals in the peripheries and operate on patients who are blind from cataracts so as to restore their vision,” he said.

“We are targeting about 100 patients every month. The number might be a drop in the ocean, but at least if we cover more than a 1 000 patients annually, it is a significant milestone in the long-term.”

Council for the Blind Zimbabwe administrative secretary Mrs Felicitas Matilamanja added: “We are happy to be working with the Ministry of Health and Child Care to achieve goals of preventing blindness.”

The outreach is a monthly programme which started in 1989 and has covered Victoria Falls, Chipinge, Tsholotsho, Binga, Kariba, Beitbridge Plumtree, Sadza and Gwanda among other areas.

It is estimated that over 125 000 people in Zimbabwe are blind, half of them because of cataracts.