Due to US sanctions 13,000 Cuban patients await cataract surgery

 

HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 16 (ACN) Some 13,000 patients in need of cataract surgery are waiting for this procedure, due to the reduction in the activity levels of the services at the Ocular Microsurgery Center, due to resource limitations related mainly to the U.S. sanctions.

According to Granma newspaper, at this institution belonging to the Ramon Pando Ferrer Cuban Institute of Ophthalmology (ICO), cataract surgeries are currently the main activity, as evidenced by the fact that in the first four months of the year, 235,843 surgeries have been performed, more than 90 % of the total number of surgeries (321,084).

Dr. Eneida Perez Candelaria, head of the Cataract Service and director of the center, said that the post-pandemic crisis affecting the world has taken its toll on the work of that unit of the National Health System, worsened by the inhuman sanctions of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the U.S. government against Cuba.

She explained that when the center was opened 35 years ago, it was treating cataract conditions (a reversible disease that causes loss of vision) and also those caused by refractive effects such as hyperopia, myopia, astigmatism and glaucoma.
In spite of the adversities, 1,158,210 consultations have also been carried out, and the surgical institution does not give up its important social task, according to Granma.

The Ocular Microsurgery Center, founded by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz and Russian professor Svyatoslav Fyodorov on April 29, 1988, has a high level of specialization in its doctors, nurses, engineers and technicians, to provide the best care to patients.