Cataract Surgery

India has the maximum number of visually challenged people in the world but 85 per cent of the cases of vision loss are preventable or treatable and there was a need to spread awareness about it, experts say. On the occasion of the World Sight Day, the experts noted that India is home to an estimated 34 million people living with blindness or moderate or severe visual impairment (MSVI). Dr Ikeda Lal, senior cornea, cataract and refractory surgery specialist, at Delhi Eye Centre and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital Delhi said, "It is important to spread awareness around preventable blindness because more than 85 per cent of the blindness is preventable if only people know how to address it". The common reasons for blindness in India are cataract, glaucoma, macular degeneration, uncorrected refractive error, diabetic retinopathy and corneal blindness. Unfortunately, people often do not know that all these conditions can be treated and blindness can be reversed, Dr Lal said. Dr Rajesh Sinha, .

More than 83 lakh cataract surgeries have been performed in the country from January 17 this year till date under a special campaign to clear the backlog created during the Covid pandemic, officials said on Thursday. This has led to the decline in the blindness cases caused due to cataract, they said. Cataract surgeries were largely affected under the National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment (NPCBVI) during the pandemic. Therefore, the Union health ministry planned a special campaign for the backlog and targeted to conduct at least 75 lakh cataract surgeries. All the states and UTs were directed to speed up the procedure of cataract surgeries, said a health ministry official. "But we have surpassed the target as over 83 lakh cataract surgeries have been performed since January 17 till now," the official said. According to the NPCBVI carried out from 2015-2019, the prevalence of blindness had declined to 0.36 per cent in 2019. Under the National Health Polic

Reportedly, the patients were told that the eye surgeries were being done at a free camp but were charged Rs 1500 each

A team of international scientists has been carrying out advanced optical tests on an oxysterol compound that had been proposed as an anti-cataract drug

A total of 13 people so far have lost their eyesight following cataract surgery at a local eye hospital in Muzaffarpur, District civil surgeon Dr Vinay Kumar Sharma said

President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday underwent a cataract surgery at the Army hospital here, a Rashtrapati Bhavan statement said. The surgery was successful and he has been discharged from the hospital, it said. Kovind aged 75 to over as the 14th president of India on July 25, 2017. "The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind underwent cataract surgery today morning (August 19, 2021) at the Army Hospital (Referral & Research), New Delhi. Surgery was successful and he has been discharged from the Hospital," the statement said.

Earlier, CMO said the acting district magistrate has ordered a probe into the matter and the organisation entrusted with the task could be blacklisted, if found guilty