CubaCoopera. Un mundo mejor es posible
Idiomas
Mission Miracle
According to figures of the World Health Organization, there are more than 37 million people in the world who have lost their sight as a result of preventable causes; of these, more than a million and a half are children below the age of 16.
The prevalence varies in relation to the level of economic development in each country. While in developed countries blindness hovers at 0.25%, in countries with poor economies and insufficient health care services, this figure can reach 1% of the populace.
In Third World countries, the main causes of blindness are cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, infectious diseases such as trachoma and onchocerciasis, and Vitamin A deficiencies. Other ophthalmologic diseases such as pterygium, ptosis and strabism are very frequent in both children and adults.
Since cataracts are the cause of more than 50% of avoidable causes of blindness in the world, one must perform between 2000 and 4000 cataract operations for each million people annually if one wishes to gradually eradicate this disease. We are dealing with figures that today are only in the reach of highly developed countries, basically due to poor access to medical services and high costs of surgery in developing countries.
Glaucoma causes 15% of the blindness in the world. Between 1 and 2% of the world population suffers from this disease, and these figures double in black populations. Ten percent of these cases evolve towards blindness and they require a high percentage of filter or trabeculoplasty laser surgery.
Given the rise in diabetes mellitus in the world, another avoidable cause of blindness is diabetic retinopathy. Between 2 and 3 % of the populace suffers from diabetes and 20 % of these cases develop proliferating retinopathy.
On July 5, 2004, the president of the Republic of Cuba, Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro and the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, agreed to develop a cooperative programme between their people, to aid patients having eye diseases.
Within the framework of Operación Milagro (Operation Miracle), Cuba has donated 51 ophthalmologic centres which have already been installed in 13 countries in Latin American, the Caribbean and Africa (17 in Venezuela, 2 in Haiti, 15 in Bolivia, 3 in Guatemala, 3 in Ecuador, 3 in Honduras, 1 in Panama, 1 in Mali, 1 in Uruguay, 1 in Paraguay, 1 in San Vicent and The Granadines, 2 in Nicaragua and 1 in Angola).
Where 1,251,793 Latin American, Africa and Caribbean patients have already been operated on. More than 900 Cuban public health professionals are working in these ophthalmologic centres and of these, 200 are ophthalmologists.
• The Caribbean (15 countries): 51,572 operations which means one out of every 361 inhabitants has benefited from Operación Milagro
• Latin America (14 countries): 449,415 operations which means one out of every 1,070 inhabitants has benefited from Operación Milagro.
• In Venezuela: 550,264 operations which means one out of every 51 Venezuelans has benefited from Operación Milagro.
• Africa: In Mali 6,213 operations and 1,024 operations in Angola.
• In Cuba: 193,305 operations which means one out of every 59 Cubans has benefited from Operación Milagro.
The following statistics show the numbers of patients operated on until July.22, 2008.
General Summary by Region
Geographical area |
Total of patients operated on from 2004 until July 22, 2008. |
Caribean |
51,572 |
Latin America |
449,415 |
Venezuela |
550,264 |
Mali |
6,213 |
Angola |
1,024 |
Cuba |
193,305 |
Total |
1,251,793 |