BY TANIA LAM & NOOR SYAHHIRA HADY
KUCHING: Sarawak state ophthalmologist Dr Chieng Lee Ling has urged members of the public with eye conditions such as cataracts to not hesitate in seeking medical advice.
He said that there are many misconceptions surrounding cataracts, including that a cataract had to be mature before an operation could be carried out.
“You do not have to wait until it is mature before doing cataract surgery. In fact, sometimes surgery can be difficult once the cataract is mature,” he said when met by reporters at the World Sight Day (WSD) 2020 celebration at SMA-Tegas Digital Innovation Hub here today, which State Health Department (JKNS) director Dr Chin Zin Hing officiated at.
Instead, he advised that once vision is affected, cataract surgery should be carried out.
“It is easier to do it that way. Why do you have to suffer for a long time to do cataract surgery when you can do it earlier? It only takes 15 minutes or less, and the patient does not need to be admitted.
“It is a straightforward procedure and the risk is very low as it is one of the safest surgeries in the world,” he said, adding that he did not want those with cataracts to avoid surgery just out of fear.
Dr Chieng also encouraged early treatment for children for refractive error, as ignoring the situation could cause amblyopia — also known as lazy eye.
“If one has refractive error and they do not wear glasses when they are young, it will develop into lazy eye,” he said, adding that his department had many programmes focusing on children.
He explained that amblyopia needed to be treated before the age of eight.
Meanwhile, Dr Chin in his earlier speech said that cataracts are one of the main causes of visual impairment and blindness in the world.
“The National Eye Survey II (NES II) in 2014 showed that untreated cataracts cause 58 percent of blindness (in Malaysia). Overall, more than two-thirds of blindness is preventable,” he said.
He pointed out that Sarawak had one of the poorest accessibilities to eye care services in the country, with Sarawak’s geographical terrain being a limiting factor and barrier to cataract surgery for rural folk.
He said there are at least 2.2 billion people with vision impairment globally, of which over a billion are preventable cases. Citing the Lancet Global Health 2019 report, he said there are 36 million people who are blind and 250 million people who are suffering from moderate and severe distance visual impairment around the world.
“The growth of the ageing global population will result in a tripling of people affected, with 115 million people expected to be blind and 700 million vision-impaired over the course of the next 30 years,” he said, adding that the majority of visually impaired people lived in low- or middle-income countries.
Dr Chin said that nearly 80 percent of the world’s blindness is avoidable.
“Millions more people are living with eye conditions that predispose them to blindness such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma,” he said.
