SYRIA: OBIS Flying Eye Hospital descends on Aleppo to help train local doctors and nurses to treat eye conditions

Record ID: 278474

  • Title: SYRIA: OBIS Flying Eye Hospital descends on Aleppo to help train local doctors and nurses to treat eye conditions
  • Date: 7th May 2007
  • Summary: (MER2) DAMASCUS, SYRIA (MAY 3, 2007) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ORBIS STAFF MEETING WITH SYRIAN PRIME MINISTER NAJI AL-OTARI (8 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 22nd May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVABEZ8GU6TOD018OCDS7EGS3L0F
  • Story Text: The ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital team has conducted an intensive training programme in Aleppo to enhance the skills of the local ophthalmic community so that they are better equipped to treat and prevent eye diseases prevalent among Syrians.
    The ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital has spent just over two weeks in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo at the invitation of the Syrian Ministry of Health invited to help train local doctors and nurses treat various eye conditions. The Flying Eye Hospital was on its third visit to Syria, where there is a lack of equipment and knowledge in specialised skills in specific areas of ophthalmology, according to ORBIS director Dr. Drew Boshell.
    "Working with the local eye care professionals; the ophthalmologists, the nurses, the biomedical engineers, the anaesthesiologist, so that they can increase their skills and knowledge and their ability to increase their ability to treat and prevent blindness in this country," Dr. Boshell told Reuters.
    Syrian doctors and nurses worked side-by-side with an international medical team on board the Flying Eye Hospital and within the Aleppo Eye Specialist Hospital to restore sight to the blind.
    The Syrian government has recently changed laws to allow for organ donations in the country, and there is an eye bank in Damascus. But cornea donation has not yet gained social acceptability, with the result that the eye bank has no available corneas.
    "We need to spread the message to the public to be able to donate their corneas to give the gift of sight upon their death - giving the gift of sight to someone else. So that's a very strong message that we are trying to work with the government to spread amongst the population to be able to give the gift of the sight to others," Boshell added.
    In June 1997 ORBIS conducted its first Flying Eye Hospital program in Damascus and returned again in September 1998. This year's visit lasted from April 15 to May 3.
    About 100 Syrian ophthalmologists received training in diagnosis and management of cataracts, glaucoma, corneal diseases, paediatric blindness, retinal disease, and oculoplastic/orbital disorders through lectures, hands-on training, live surgical demonstration and wet-lab sessions.
    Janine Sourourian, a Syrian doctor, told Reuters: "In public hospitals in Syria this type of surgical procedure is available - in Damascus - and in Aleppo in the university hospital. And soon it will be available in the private eye hospital."
    In Syria the ophthalmic community has a national society with over 500 active members. However, it is estimated that there is only one ophthalmologist for every 26,354 citizens.
    "I had an opportunity to teach surgery in Damascus ten years ago, and at that time I found that Syrian doctors in training absolutely enthusiastic, great, well trained and extremely eager to learn," the American Doctor, Rosalind Stevens, said after operating on 50 year-old Aminah Idris.
    ORBIS has also worked with local public health and education officials to launch a pilot school screening programme, one of the first in Syria, and a model for a future city-wide screening programme, to detect refractive errors in children.
    Dr. Rida Said, Director of the Damascus Eye Hospital, told Reuters: "We started a new programme this year which studies the cases of students in schools to research the reasons behind their eye problems and we have carried out studies in three schools where we examined all the students."
    Regionally, the major causes of childhood blindness are retinal degeneration, congenital cataract and glaucoma.
    Eye diseases have long been recognised as a major health problem in the Middle East. According to ORBIS, 130,200 Syrians are blind and more than 837,000 have low vision. The majority of the causes of blindness in Syria are either treatable or preventable.
    The ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital is literally a hospital with wings that took flight after extensive modification to the passenger area and cargo bay of a DC-10 jet aircraft. This mobile teaching facility brings together dedicated eye care professionals and aviators to transport the gift of sight around the world.
    On board, local doctors, nurses and technicians work alongside ORBIS's international medical team in the operating, laser treatment and recovery rooms to exchange knowledge and improve their ability to preserve and restore sight.
    ORBIS International was set up 25 years ago as a non-profit humanitarian organisation dedicated to blindness prevention and treatment in developing countries.
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