'12,000 children lose vision due to curable cataract'

They said there are 40,000 visually impaired children in the country and childhood cataract is the main reason for their blindness.

It needs a countrywide effective communication programme to make people aware that sight restoring is possible if cataract could be removed as soon as it is diagnosed, they added.

Prof MA Matin MP, vice-chairman of Bangladesh National Council for the Blind (BNCB), was present as chief guest at the launching ceremony organised by Child Sight Foundation (CSF) at Brac Centre in the city.

CSF President Prof AH Syedur Rahman presided over the function while clinical research fellow of International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH) Dr MA Muhit presented the keynote paper.

Dr Muhit said 85 percent children who have lost their eyesight are either congenital blind or slowly became visually impaired within the age of 0-5 years.

So it is an urgent need to operate the cataract through a simple surgery whenever it is diagnosed, he added.

The CSF has been working in 14 districts of the country and a three-year Childhood Blindness Campaign has been launched recently in Naogaon District for comprehensive community- based rehabilitation and child sight network.

"Mass awareness is needed to curb the problem and the CSF has taken a much-needed step to inform about the problem and provide quite affordable solution. It has arranged surgery of childhood cataract free of cost through the partner hospitals. It has also taken rehabilitation programmes for the completely blind children to protect their rights," said Prof Matin.

The launching ceremony was followed by a discussion among the member organisations of Child Sight Network for the welfare of the visually impaired children.