DAB, ORBIS deal to provide diabetic eye care services

An agreement was signed between ORBIS International, Bangladesh Country Office and the Diabetic Association of Bangladesh (DAB) recently to develop comprehensive diabetic eye care services for the remote rural population of the country's northern region, says a press release.
Diabetic Retinopathy is a severe blinding condition where blood supply of the retina becomes fragile and later bleed chronically. If not treated at an early stage, near-to-total blindness is inevitable.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), diabetes will become one of the world's top causes of major disability and fatality in the next 25 years. In Bangladesh, about 20 per cent of 145 million people are above 40 years of age and 20 per cent of this group are diabetic.
One-fourth of these diabetic patients could face Diabetic Retinopathy at any time. Through this project, 110,000 diabetic patients will be examined for diabetic eye diseases, 30,000 eye patients will receive surgical and LASER treatment and about 8000 patients will receive cataract surgeries.
ORBIS will help facilitate capacity development of the three peripheral hospitals of DAB (Thakurgaon, Dinajpur and Bogra) by training staffs, providing equipments and establishing necessary systems during the five-year project.
DAB President Prof AK Azad Khan and its Secretary General M Sayef Uddin, Project Director of HCDP AKM Shahjahan and its Coordinator Prof Liaquate Ali, Project Manager of DAB-ORBIS eye care project Kaniz Fatema, Country Director of ORBIS Bangladesh Dr Abu Raihan and Programme Officer Dr ASM Nurullah Awal were present during the agreement signing ceremony.