Other hospitals for dispensing much-needed medicines and for training indigenous doctors are opening in Kenya, Nigeria, Colombia, India, and the Republic of Congo. When we help people to see physically we're helping them to gain spiritual sight as well. Almost 90 percent of permanent blindness in Nepal could have been prevented or treated with simple medicines. But for every million people in its population, Nepal has only ten ophthalmologists.
African countries are often even more impoverished, with only one ophthalmologist for every million.
There are five types of preventable or curable blinding diseases that CBMI is focusing on eradicating. Maintaining good eyesight poses another problem, says CBMI 's Lor Cunningham. After cataract surgery, patients usually require glasses, but 99 percent of the people in Nepal live in rural areas and can't get their glasses fixed or replaced if they get lost or broken. In response to this dilemma, CBMI recently conducted a study in Nepal involving the use of interocular lenses in cataract surgery. Patients no longer have to worry about losing or breaking eyewear that is too difficult or costly to replace.