Ophthalmologists, NGOs come together at Brazilian Prevention of Blindness meeting

CURITIBA, Brazil — Fifteen nongovernmental organizations met with ophthalmologists from around Latin America to discuss better methods to prevent blindness throughout the region here at the Prevention of Blindness and Visual Rehabilitation meeting this past weekend.

The biannual event, hosted by the Conselho Brasiliero de Oftalmologia (CBO), brought together leading nonprofit blindness prevention organizations such as the Blindness Institute of Parana, Helen Keller International and Lions International, in the largest ophthalmology meeting in Brazil this year. With close to 3,000 attendees, the meeting is one of the largest in the world to address blindness prevention.

“This meeting is unique because it puts these (NGOs) together with the ophthalmologists. They get a chance to talk with the doctors and discuss what the NGOs do and what these organizations need from the ophthalmic community,” said Dr. Hamilton Moreira, secretary of the executive committee for the meeting and a member of the CBO board.

“The doctors who want to help with blindness prevention learn what this community would like from them and how they can help,” Dr. Moreira said in an interview with Ocular Surgery News.

As a result of past Prevention of Blindness meetings, the CBO has instituted three blindness prevention programs for the region, he said.

The Cataract Project, which was instituted in the meeting's first year, is run jointly with the Brazilian Ministry of Health. The number of free cataract surgeries in Brazil for those who could not normally afford it has risen from 138,000 in 1998 to more than 295,000 in 2001.

The Eye in the Eye program has provided more than 3.2 million eye screenings for children in their first year of school throughout Brazil.

The Diabetic Retinopathy program provides angiography screenings not covered by the Brazilian government's health policies.