Kiwi doctor targets blindness in Cambodia

Kiwi doctor targets blindness in Cambodia

News 3 (New Zealand) | 16 June 2013

More than half the world's blind live in the Asia-Pacific region (Reuters)

A New Zealand eye specialist hopes to prevent blindness in children in Cambodia through an initiative that trains local doctors.

Dr Justin Mora, from Auckland, says three-quarters of blindness worldwide is preventable if detected early.

He is one of 12 surgeons from Australasia who will be involved in setting up a paediatric opthalmology service training local doctors.

"In poor countries when these problems are not looked at the child will often simply go blind," Dr Mora said.

"We want to help the surgeons to set up screening tests which can diagnose visual problems early on, offering more hope of retaining or improving sight."

Cambodia has a scarcity of eye care services and doctors are only trained in adult care, though children suffer many problems that adults don't, he said.

A lack of the right eye care and knowledge in highly populated poorer countries, with eye problems not diagnosed in infancy, meant more than half the world's blind live in the Asia-Pacific region, Dr Mora said.

The initiative is being funded by the Australian-based Sight for All Foundation, which fights blindness in third world countries.

Dr Mora, who heads to Cambodia in July, is the first of the eye specialists who will train local surgeons in Phnom Penh for a week each, over a 12-month period.