A Hong Kong-based charitable institution helped around 60,000 underprivileged cataract patients in China regain their eyesight through undergoing operations, the China Women's Development Foundation (CWDF) revealed.
Qin Guoying, the CWDF's general secretary, unveiled during the 16th Seminar on Eyesight Restoration Surgical Operation Vehicles how the Asian Foundation for the Prevention of Blindness (AFPB) provided six mobile ophthalmology vehicles to the CWDF.
During the seminar held in Fuzhou, Fujian Province on Nov. 11-12, Qin cited how the AFPB's donation aided in curing indigent cataract patients across the country.
Cataract patients from Hebei, Sichuan, Guizhou, Gansu provinces and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region were among the thousands who now enjoy improved eyesight after undergoing cataract operations in the ophthalmology mobiles.
According to Qin, the AFPB have been successful in promoting ways to prevent and cure blindness as well as in educating blind people, helping over 400,000 cataract patients all over Asia since it was founded in 1981.
Latest reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that over 180 million people all over the world are visually impaired, where 40 to 45 million are totally blind.
As of 2010, an estimated 51 percent of these people are known to suffer from cataracts, particularly the elderly, making it the leading cause of blindness.
According to the WHO, cataracts may be prevented if a person reduces his or her exposure to cigarette smoke as well as ultraviolet light.
Diabetes and high body mass index are considered additional risk factors for people to acquire cataract, which can only be treated via surgery where the opaque lens is replaced with an artificial intraocular lens.