The Ophthalmological Society of Nigeria (OSN) has offered free surgery to 500 persons suffering from cataract in Kano State.
The surgery, which took place at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) and Murtala Muhammad Specialists Hospital in Kano, was part of the preconference activities of the 50th annual general meeting of the association holding in Kano next week.
The Local Organising Committee (LOC) Chairman of the conference, Umar Farouk Ibrahim, said the beneficiaries were drawn from the pool of people suffering from the eye problem in different parts of the state.
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He said the outreach was sponsored by AMA Foundation and Sight Boost Hospital targeting the underprivileged patients as part of the corporate social responsibility of the association.
He said, “Today we are doing cataract outreach where we are trying to offer free cataract surgery to 500 patients free of charge. 400 are in AKTH and are sponsored by AMA Foundation, while the remaining 100 are at Murtala Muhammad Specialists Hospital sponsored by Sight Boost Hospital.
“The two days operation is holding on Sunday and Monday. All the beneficiaries are from Kano state. We used some organisations that have pool of patients to identify and select the beneficiaries.
“Cataract is a disease that affects many people in Nigeria, and world over, it is the major cause of curable blindness.”
Ibrahim said after testing and screening the beneficiaries, some of them were given medical glasses and medicines to boost their sight.
The LOC Chairman then called on the beneficiaries to stick to the doctors’ recommendations after the surgery to avoid resurgence of the disease.
He said the annual national conference, which is holding in Kano for the first time, will feature various ophthalmology subspecialty sessions, discussions of latest scientific developments in their respective areas as well as series of lectures by internationally recognised ophthalmologists.
Salisu Shu’aibu Kachako, one of the surgery beneficiaries, thanked OSN for the gesture and called on other similar bodies to emulate them.