Eye specialists help over 300

MORE than 300 people with eye problems in the North Fly district of Western were provided eye care by a visiting specialist team last month.
The visits were to Tabubil and Kiunga.
The patients were treated and operated mainly for cataract and pterygium.
A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye which leads to a decrease in vision. A pterygium is a pinkish, triangular tissue growth on the cornea of the eye.
According to Tabubil Hospital administrator Margareth Samei, 43 operations were conducted at the Tabubil hospital out of 195 registered patients; 28 for cataract and 14 for pterygium.
At Kiunga Hospital, 171 patients were seen and 25 eye operations were conducted, of which 20 were for cataract.
Samei said over the last four years, the Tabubil Hospital organised a three-week eye specialist visit provided by Modilon Hospital-based Fred Hollows Foundation, Madang.
“Last year, there was no visit because Fred Hollows Foundation did not have an ophthalmologist,” she said.
This year, she said, the Western Highlands health authority accepted a request from the Tabubil Hospital and released two eye specialists for the visit.
The full team comprised Mt Hagen Hospital ophthalmologist Dr Waimbe Wahamu, theatre nurse Moses Annson; Tabubil eye clinicians Solomon Vala, Raymond Bomai and Wesley Michael (administration assistant).