Israeli doctors help fight blindness

Two Israeli eye surgeons have arrived in Burkina Faso to conduct a special 10-day series of intensive operations to cure blindness in people suffering from cataracts and trachoma. The last time a similar mission came to Burkina Faso in 1996, over 300 patients were treated. Doctor Ousmane Sanfo, the director of the ophthalmological services at the National Centre for the Blind, said: "This kind of mission is very important for us because we overwhelmed by cases, but lack the human resources and technical means to respond to all the needs," According to health ministry officials there are 175,000 blind people in this landlocked nation of more than 11 million people, which has only 20 eye specialists of its own. About 65 percent of all blind people in Burkina Faso lost their sight as a result of cataracts, an opaque growth that obscures the lens of the eye. A further 15 percent suffered from trachoma, a contagious disease which results in the inflamation of the conjunctiva and cornea. These subsequently become obscured by scar tissue that obscures vision. Burkina Faso has one of the highest rates of blindness in Africa. The health ministry estimates that 1.5 percent of the population is sightless, compared to an average of 1.2 percent for all countries south of the Sahara. The government is negotiating with Israel to obtain more frequent visits by eye surgeons who can perform rapid and straightforward operations to cure blindness as part of its drive to reduce the number of blind people in the country by 25 percent by the end of 2005. Over the past 30 years, the government has conducted a successful campaign to eradicate river blindness or onchocerciasis, a disease caused by parasitic worms that are transmitted by small black flies which live near open water. Some cases persist, particularly where people depend on rivers and streams for their drinking water, but it is no longer considered to be a major public health concern. Health ministry officials said a vitamin A deficiency in the diet is largely responsible for the prevalance of cataracts in Burkina Faso.