UNB, Dhaka :
Health experts in a workshop on Saturday stressed the importance of raising the number of ophthalmologists in the next three years in line with a vision for providing adequate eye-care.
Bangladesh will need to ensure eye-cure services for an ever-growing number of patients, the experts said.
The workshop organizers informed that there are just 1,100 ophthalmologists in the country at present, a number that will need to rise to 1,600 by 2020.
The expert observations were aired at a day-long workshop held at the capital’s BRAC Centre Inn to identify and discuss solutions to the barriers preventing the provision of requisite eye-care at the macro level, said a press release.
Bangladesh chapter of International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and International NGO Forum in Eye Health organised the workshop.
Line Director of National Eye Care (NEC) Prof Dr Golam Mostafa said the number of optometrists and mid-level eye care professionals must also increase significantly.
Prof Syed Modasser Ali, an ex-advisor to prime minister during the Awami League’s first term in government, was present at the event as the chief guest while WHO Regional Adviser (Disability, Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation) for South-East Asia Dr Patanjali Dev Nayar, Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO) Vice-President Prof Ava Hossain and Directorate General o ex-director General Prof Deen Mohd Noorul Huq, among others, attended the function.
A government survey shows that in Bangladesh around 750,000 people or 1.53 percent of the population aged 30 years or more are blind while 13.8 percent of the same age-group people suffer from low vision. Of the blind people, 40,000 are children.
Health experts in a workshop on Saturday stressed the importance of raising the number of ophthalmologists in the next three years in line with a vision for providing adequate eye-care.
Bangladesh will need to ensure eye-cure services for an ever-growing number of patients, the experts said.
The workshop organizers informed that there are just 1,100 ophthalmologists in the country at present, a number that will need to rise to 1,600 by 2020.
The expert observations were aired at a day-long workshop held at the capital’s BRAC Centre Inn to identify and discuss solutions to the barriers preventing the provision of requisite eye-care at the macro level, said a press release.
Bangladesh chapter of International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and International NGO Forum in Eye Health organised the workshop.
Line Director of National Eye Care (NEC) Prof Dr Golam Mostafa said the number of optometrists and mid-level eye care professionals must also increase significantly.
Prof Syed Modasser Ali, an ex-advisor to prime minister during the Awami League’s first term in government, was present at the event as the chief guest while WHO Regional Adviser (Disability, Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation) for South-East Asia Dr Patanjali Dev Nayar, Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO) Vice-President Prof Ava Hossain and Directorate General o ex-director General Prof Deen Mohd Noorul Huq, among others, attended the function.
A government survey shows that in Bangladesh around 750,000 people or 1.53 percent of the population aged 30 years or more are blind while 13.8 percent of the same age-group people suffer from low vision. Of the blind people, 40,000 are children.
