News from "Diabetic retinopathy programme"
President-elect, Rotary International, Wilfrid J.Wilkinson (second left), listening to the Managing Trustee of Sankara Eye Centre R.V.Ramani (right) in Coimbatore on Friday. Collector Neeraj Mittal and Industrialist N. Mahalingam (left ) are in the picture.President-elect of Rotary International Wilfrid J. Wilkinson on Friday stressed the need for spreading and sharing expertise and experience gained in community eye care for the poor.Mr. Wilkinson was speaking at a function organised by Sankara Eye Centre and Rotary Coimbatore Central to launch a diabetic retinopathy programme for rural India."When there is a need for eye care especially for loss of vision due to retinopathy in the country and the equally greater need across the world, there is a need for spreading the mission for vision," he said. He congratulated the participants in the mission i.e., Bruce Davis Trust of UK, Savitry Waney Charitable Trust of UK and Seerangammal Hospital of Sangampalayam. Ms. Archana Prasad of Microsoft Research presented an exclusively-designed software for this project.Earlier, District Collector Neeraj Mittal inaugurated a state-of-the-art auditorium named after N. Mahalingam, Chairman of Sakthi Group, with whose contribution the auditorium was constructed. Dr. Mittal said the District Blindness Control Society had a target for performing 39,000 surgeries for cataract and intra-ocular lens but the administration with the help of hospitals had surpassed the target by performing 43,000 surgeries in 2006-07.
He lauded Sankara Eye Centre for providing preventive eye care for school children and those in Government hostels by treating and providing free spectacles. Dr. Mahalingam inaugurated Sankara Eye Bank and additional facilities. He asked the Government to ensure preservation of food without loss of nutrients. He stressed the need to promote preventive healthcare rather than curative and rehabilitative medical care.Presenting an overview of the project, managing trustee R.V. Ramani said the number of diabetics currently at 30 to 33 million was expected to touch 40 million by 2010. India stands fourth in the world population of diabetics and added that World Health Organisation (WHO) had assessed that India would be the diabetic capital shortly.Diabetes led to retinopathy causing blindness. Mr Ramani said 40 million people were visually handicapped while 15 million were blind.
He exhorted the Rotary International president-elect to consider setting up an academy at Coimbatore to impart skills and training in community eye care for doctors from all over the world. He said under the diabetic retinopathy project for rural India, Sankara Eye Bank planned to cover 15,78,952 persons in a phased manner and the exercise would first begin in Pollachi area and would be then replicated ino other parts of the District. S.V. Balasubramanian, Chairman of the Trust, Rotarians Babu Joseph, Krishnaswamy, Libby Sallnow and others offered felicitations. J. Ravi, Rotary Coimbatore Central President welcomed the gathering.
