AFRICA - Over 250 eye operations restore sight to people in Togo and Ghana: AFMAL mission reports

Monday, 26 June 2006

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - Concluded an Italian mission to “restore sight”: 240 cataract operations and about 2,400 medical examinations for eye problems and other conditions.
For twelve days doctors of AFMAL (Associazione con i Fatebenefratelli per i Malati Lontani) and Italian Airforce worked together in Togo and Ghana to cure blindness caused by neglected eye diseases and other pathologies.
Two teams of oculists, nurses and technicians from various St John of God Hospitals in Italy, and Italian Airforce medical corps operated together at St John of God Hospitals in Afagnan, 150 km Lomè capital of Togo and in the little village of Asafo, in west Ghana about 30km from the border with Côte d'Ivoire.
In many cases the doctors removed cataracts a simple operation not available in this part of Africa and which affects at least 2 million people.
For the first time in the “restore light” mission, oculists were flanked by heart and skin specialists, paediatricians, psychiatrists and anaesthetists. Together they made 1,800 examinations or interventions
Medical activity also extended to the village of Tanguietà in Benin ten hours jeep ride from Afagnan and in the village of Datcha, two hours jeep ride from Afagnan.
As part of the mission the teams distributed 1000 pairs of second hand spectacles collected in Italy as part of “Occhiali per il mondo”, “Spectacles for the World” initiative.
There have been six previous ‘restore sight’ missions between 2003 and 2005: three in Mali, one in Benin, one in Bali and one in Togo. The latest mission brought to total number of cataract operations to 1,140 and medical examinations to 5,500. (AP) (26/6/2006 Agenzia Fides; Righe:36; Parole:403)


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