Eye surgery at Rumbek State Hospital. (Photo: Yang Ater).
Eye surgeons from Buluk Eye Center in Juba launched eye operation campaign on Monday targeting over 300 people with eye ailments and curable blindness like cataract at Rumbek State Hospital in Lakes State.
Dr. Emmanuel Agwella, an ophthalmologist of the Buluk Eye Center and the group’s team leader said it is the second time they have visited Lakes for the free eye surgery campaign.
“We have come here, not for the first time but several teams have come before. I even remember in September 2023 when a team came and did surgery,” he said.
“Sometimes, they (patients) may come less than that number, maybe around 2 or 8 patients. But sometimes you may get surprised and ended up to do 310-320 but we are trying to do our best to do this and this type of surgery is called cataracts surgery,” he said in an interview with Eye Radio.
Eye illnesses are among the neglected tropical diseases in South Sudan, where there are only two active treatment centers in Juba.
An ophthalmologist treats dry eye syndrome, eyelid conditions such as blepharitis and styes, cataracts, diabetic eye disease, glaucoma or macular degeneration.
In 2020 in South Sudan, there were an estimated 1.1 million people with vision loss out of whom 91,000 were blind, according to the International Agency for Preventing Blindness.
Cataract is a condition that clouds the normally clear lens of the eye and blurs vision and often develops in the old age. It is the leading causes of blindness in South Sudan and accounts for 42%, while trachoma is (35.3%), according to According to Research Gate.
“You will see the eye looks like there is something white in the eye pupil and these are things we called cataracts. The len is already old, so we removed the whole Len and put artificial lens and automatically the following morning the person sees,” he said.
He said the campaign is financed by the Italian Agency for Development Corporation in partnership with Doctors with Africa CUAMM and CBM International and Rehabilitation and Development Organisation (RaDO).
“We shall be starting right away from Tuesday and as I told you, we are targeting around 300 patients. And that means if we are doing 60 patients per day, it will take about 5 days.”
“Our eyes are very important part of our bodies and help us do well and succeed. They help us to even promote a lot of things. Therefore, let us not wait for campaign in order for us to check our eyes.”
“If you feel anything like you are not seeing well and there pain, there is itching, there is anything related to the eye. Maybe there are some discharge like the eye is not clean you have come to us because we have our eye unit here in the hospital.”
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