Our Vision VISION PARAGUAY

Question:-

Why is this child blind?

Answer:-

1. Education

Mother does not understand the importance of eye care

2. Poverty

The parents could not afford a tube of antibiotic cream

3. Unequal access to health care

Eye care in many countries is concentrated in the cities.

Rural patients can find it difficult to get treatment

Rossana's mother is very poor and uneducated. Rossana had untreated conjunctivitis which developed into ulcers on her corneas (the clear window at the front of her eyes). Eventually, the ulcers ate through the front of the eye and the contents of the eye started coming out. An emergency operation was done to save the eye but not to restore vision. When our team first saw her she had opaque scarred white corneas (normally clear) and also dense white cataracts stuck to this scarring. With the help of Vision Paraguay, she was brought to the UK for extensive surgery including corneal transplants to both eyes as well as cataract surgery.

Our Vision is to live in a world where there is no unnecessary blindness.

To someone involved in eye care, a person going blind is a failure, something to be ashamed about. We believe that to let a person become blind unnecessarily is worse.

Calling it a crime is not putting it too strongly.

To make major inroads into treatable blindness will require tremendous social changes addressing poverty, education and government attitudes.

Education

This can be considered on several levels.

The Patient.

Patients with appropriate education are likely to be less poor and so will have better access to healthcare even if it merely gives them the ability to travel.

Better education is also associated with better diet (Vitamin A deficiency) and better hygiene.

The Doctor

The education of doctors often has a highly technical emphasis without a corresponding moral and social dimension. Much more could be done to alter the emphasis of medical education.

Governments

Studies in different countries tend to show that the cost of blind people to the country (loss of income tax, cost of support etc) is greater than the cost of treating the conditions. Educating governments to this fact could have a dramatic effect on the willingness to fund care programmes.

Poverty

Poverty often goes hand in hand with poor education.

Patient poverty

Affects health and health care in many different ways:-

-The inability to fund treatment, both medication and surgery.

-The inability to travel to access treatment.

-Dirty drinking water.

-Inadequate sewage systems.

-Poor diet.

Doctor poverty

It may seem strange to consider this but in a system where a doctor cannot make a reasonable living, there is little incentive to treat the poor. The doctor will either only treat rich people who can pay, or will leave the country for better prospects elsewhere.

National poverty

As can be seen by the problems of healthcare in the UK, providing a "national" health service is an expensive undertaking. In poor countries it may just not be affordable, at least in the form that we have come to expect.

Access to Health Care

It is a mistake to think that there is a right and wrong way to provide healthcare. Many different systems are in use around the world and there are many different ways of funding this care. For example, there is the "barefoot doctor" system where care workers are trained in the management of the most common or most serious conditions in an area. They travel from village to village making a major impact on the most significant diseases. An example of this is the trachoma nurse/doctor who is trained in a simple operation to stop the eyelashes rubbing the eye and leading to blindness. In other areas profits from private medicine are used to provide a service for patients who cannot pay.

One problem with predominantly private healthcare systems is that doctors tend to stay in the cities where there are enough wealthy people who can afford their services. This leaves the rural poor without access to care.