Sri Lanka : Support to Blindness Prevention

2. DISEASE CONTROL

i) Outreach Eye Camps in Remote Rural Areas

Until sustainable eye care infrastructures have been put in place that can serve the whole population, the Ministry of Health continues to recognize the benefit of having medical teams conduct outreach visits to perform eye screening and surgery in remote, rural areas of the country where no eye clinics exist.

IRIS has been asked to organize and fund an annual program of eye camps over the next five years, commencing in February 2006 with an eye camp of 4-weeks duration. Eye screening and cataract surgery will be provided for the populations of Puthukudiyrupu, Mullaitivu and Mannar in the north and east of the country and Kamburupitya in the south.

A target of screening 11,000 people and performing a minimum of 700 cataract surgeries has been set and will be achieved by a team of in-country and expatriate ophthalmologists. IRIS consultant ophthalmologists (2) will participate in the program and pay their own international travel costs.

The IRIS Field Manager will provide logistical support and IRIS has been asked to resource all the ophthalmic equipment and medical supplies and make all necessary arrangements with Provincial Depts. of Health to ensure the program is widely advertised in advance throughout all target communities.

A 4-wheel drive Toyota pick-up truck is required to support the eye camp program and to transport the medical team and ophthalmic equipment to the various locations. The vehicle will be used at other times to conduct clinic monitoring visits and support other components of the IRIS program.

IMPACT

By March 2006, an estimated 11,000 people who currently have no access to eye care services will have received eye screening and 700 people will have had their sight restored.

ii) Pilot Project: Tea Plantation Workers

Eight per cent of Sri Lanka's population (1.6 million people) work in tea plantations spread throughout the low-to-high hill areas of the country. The vast majority are Tamils, descendants of families brought from India as cheap labour for the island's profitable tea and rubber plantations during the time of colonial rule.

The town of Nuwara Eliya is located close to a great many tea plantations and its district hospital is one IRIS aims to support with ophthalmic equipment. Given the previous lack of eye care services available to tea plantation workers, IRIS will establish a pilot-project (November 2005) aimed at facilitating access to eye care for all employees of one tea plantation, an estimated 3,000 workers.

The project will establish a Heads of Agreement with the plantation owner/managers that will enable any member of the workforce with vision problems to receive eye screening and support for eye surgery, if needed.

Nurses and the ophthalmologist from the Nuwara Eliya eye clinic will conduct the outreach screening and surgery program and the process undertaken will inform a best-practice model that IRIS will promote to the owners/ managers of other tea plantations in subsequent years.

IMPACT

i) Of the 3,000 tea plantation workers, IRIS estimates 4% (120 people) will have their sight restored through cataract surgery and 40 others will be treated for other blinding or potentially blinding conditions (pterygium, glaucoma, etc).

ii) A best-practice model will be determined and promoted throughout the tea plantation sector.