A patient being examined as part of the eye-treatment and anti-blindness project in Sudan.
Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has deployed an eye-treatment and anti-blindness medical convoy to Atbara, River Nile State, Sudan. The project worth $50,000 is done in partnership with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC).
The overall purpose of the mission is to provide medical assistance for cataract patients in River Nile State, by examining the health care seekers, giving consultations and treatment as needed, identify the cases that require surgical intervention, performing the cataract operations, and providing pre-procedure and post-procedure care.
Other activities include supporting the Atbara Eye Hospital with medical equipment and supplies to provide effective health and surgical services for the local community. The local medical staff will also be trained to ensure higher proficiency.
Over 10 days, a medical team from QRCS will receive the patients on a daily basis, assisted with the hospital’s workforce. The medical convoy is expected to receive up to 4,000 patients, from whom 500 critical cases will be selected for cataract surgeries. In addition, there will be 2,500 indirect beneficiaries from the families of the patients.
Earlier this month, memoranda of understanding (MoUs) were signed with the Sudanese Red Crescent Society (SRCS) and the Atbara Eye Hospital to coordinate the roles, supervise the workflow through the phases of the project, secure all travel facilitations and permissions, select the beneficiaries in coordination with Sudan’s Blindness Program Department of the Ministry of Health (MOH), and purchase all the needed medical equipment and consumables.
By the end of this month, another medical convoy is set to be deployed to Nyala, South Darfur State, Sudan, to perform 100 operations in general surgery, urology, orthopaedics, and paediatrics. The $80,000 mission will comprise specialists and consultants from Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), and they will be assisted by the local staff at Nyala Public Hospital.
According to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) electronic medical record (EMR) for the MENA region, including Sudan, the blindness prevalence rate among above-50 populations is seven percent.
Blindness-related data in Sudan is below average. The National Blindness Prevention Program estimates that 1.5 percent of the whole population suffer blindness.
