A doctor gives eye examination to a child (Illustrative photo: VNA) Binh Dinh (VNA) – A project funded by Orbis Vietnam to develop children’s eye care services in the southern central province of Binh Dinh has obtained good results that are beyond expectations, heard a recent meeting.
The project from 2014 to 2019, provided with over 1.2 million USD by Orbis Vietnam, aims to help reduce the rate of blindness and deterioration of vision in children of Binh Dinh and neighbouring provinces through enhancing the targeted group’s access to eye care services.
At the review meeting on December 19, Director of the Binh Dinh provincial Department of Health Le Quang Hung said thanks to the project, the children’s department at the Binh Dinh Eye Hospital has been put into use, providing sufficient eye examination, treatment and surgery services for child patients in the province and the nearby Quang Ngai, Phu Yen, Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces.
Particularly, the Binh Dinh General Hospital has become the first in the southern central and Central Highlands regions to be able to provide screening and treatment of retinopathy of prematurity.
He noted this project has given training to doctors of the province’s eye and general hospitals and helped Binh Dinh form a comprehensive children’s eye care network from the community to medical establishments.
More than 11,400 children have received eye disease and disorder treatment (equivalent to 478 percent of the target), 260,000 have benefited from eye disease screening in the community (1,000 percent of the target), and 1,400 medical workers of communes and schools have been trained in eye examination, Hung added.
Director of Orbis Vietnam Tran Thi Thanh Huong said all of the targets for the project in Binh Dinh have exceeded expectations, noting that through this project, the local medical staff are now capable of treating and conducting surgery for complex eye diseases in children./.
VNA
