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Project Project Presentation Joint Programme – Cataract surgery for underprivileged patients in Morocco Fondation Althea Restoring sight for a better life Background In Morocco, an estimated 1'500'000 1 people suffer from cataract. A large part of this people live are underprivileged and live in rural or nomadic areas, with no or little access to medical care. Only in the province of Rhamna, the number of cataract patients is approx. 4'ooo. Most of them can just not afford the costs of treatment. Today, cataract is still one of the major causes of strong visual impairment or total blindness worldwide, amounting to 51% of global causes. Persons affected dramatically loose in quality of life, are impaired in their mobility and their daily professional or private activities and often become a burden for their family or community. This doesn’t need to be! Cataract is mostly a curable disease, with a simple surgery operation to replace the clouded lens by an artificial intra- ocular lens. The patient sight is then restored, and therewith her or his abilities. To tackle this huge challenge, the Ministry of Health, Foundation Althea, Dr. Mohamed Chabhi and Alcon have decided to team-up and carry out eye surgery campaigns. This action is along the objectives of the campaign “Vision 2020 – The Right to Sight”. The aim is to make priority target regions “a Cataract free zone”. Once achieved, this would mean that only new cases would then have to be operated At the Ministry of Health, Dr. Jaouad Hammou is the coordinator of the National Programme for Prevention of Blindness. Since he took office, he is putting great efforts and mobilizes all possible resources to tackle the huge challenge posed by visual impairment and blindness in the country. He was key to facilitate missions by Fondation Althea and other actors and is an important support to our actions. The task facing him and his teams is rather tremendous, so he welcomes and supports all relevant initiatives that may contribute to improving the situation and people’s lives. Dr. Chabhi is a reputed ophthalmologist. Beside his work in his profitable eye hospital, he dedicates himself since many years to cure underprivileged patients, who otherwise would irremediably remain blind. He built up a team of equally dedicated and professional assistants and nurses who assist him in this remarkable and charitable action. Elimination of blindness through cataract surgery campaigns in rural areas of Morocco represented the focus of Fondation Althea since the beginning, and several successful missions were carried out from 2002 till 2009. Due to constraints in finding volunteer ophthalmologists, and with important needs in schools for vision correction, we temporarily turned our efforts on optical campaigns only, for providing children with eye-glasses and medical treatment when needed. Today we are happy, with the support of MoH and Dr. Chabhi, to also resume our actions to prevent avoidable blindness, thanks to the commitment of Alcon. Moreover, this is in line with our long term goal, to have local ophthalmologists and teams, occasionally supported by foreign 1 source: World Bank www.fondation-althea.org 2 ophthalmologists, to secure surgery and specialized care all along the year. It fulfills the needs of proximity, thorough post-op follow-up and permanently available services. Planned action Health services in Moroccan provinces carry out surveys in rural and poor urban areas in order to identify operable cataract patients who are matching the criteria for free surgery. Considering the total number found in Rhamna region, say 3'688 and the fact that this is one of the most densely populated rural areas, we plan to carry out sight restoring surgeries in priority there. Dr Chabhi and team have the capacity to operate, using the phaco-emulsification technology, about 1’000 patients per year. We plan to begin with a first group of 200 patients from the Rhamna area, a very populated region with a substantial number of poor patients. To work more efficiently and as the travel distance is relatively short (250 km), patients will be carried by buses to Dr. Chabhi clinic, undergo lab tests and pre-op examination. Patients with glaucoma or diabetes type II, or those having retina diseases who would make a cataract operation meaningless, will be excluded. Those with operable cataract will undergo surgery with IOL implantation and have post operative care there. Afterwards all patients will be brought back to their place of residence. Dr. Chabhi on outreach mission in Senegal For those with various eye problems, options will be discussed with the MoH in order to find ways for treatment. Glaucoma patients e.g. may be operated or receive treatment, and could be eligible for cataract surgery at a later stage. Patients with bilateral cataract will be operated in one eye, then the second eye few months later. Depending on patients location, further campaigns will either be organized the same way, or Dr. Chabhi and team would travel to hospital facilities closer to patients living area, in outreach missions. During each surgery sessions, statistics will be made, recording the number of patients for each ailment, number who underwent cataract surgery, and patients who received other treatment or referred for treatment. Surveys are ongoing, therefore more patients will be progressively assessed, and lists established for future surgery sessions. Our common action contributes to the objectives of the WHO « Plan of action for the prevention of blindness and avoidable visual impairments 2009 – 2013, in particular : N Obj. 2. Elaborate national policies, plans and programmes for eye health and prevention of blindness, or reinforce the existing ones N Obj. 4. Improve coordination between partners and actors at national and international levels to prevent blindness and visual impairments www.fondation-althea.org 3 This first campaign will take place in the second quarter of 2013. Dr. Chabhi welcomes Alcon management and co-workers in Morocco to attend the eye-surgery sessions as wished. Contribution from the various partners The Ministry of Health provides services through its local teams for screening and preparing patients lists, and support to the surgery team when in outreach campaigns. They will also check and ensure that only indigent patients will get access to free surgery. The MoH also provides vehicles, fuel, local accommodation and subsistence for outreach teams Fondation Althea provides logistical and organizational support to shuttle patients from their place or residence and back. We would also contribute in finding solutions and partners to make suggestions to the MoH for treatment of other eye patients. We provide expertise and formats for statistics, and ensure those are delivered to the relevant bodies and partners. We would also coordinate with Alcon and regularly report on progresses. Both partners, with the support and involvement of Dr. Chabhi, will seek motivated and competent Moroccan ophthalmologists to take part in such outreach campaigns, in all relevant provinces and areas. When required, additional training will be organized at reputed professional facilities. Mr. Tlemcani, owner of a medical laboratory, has generously volunteered to perform all necessary lab tests at his facility, free of charge. Support required from Alcon For the global surgery campaign, Dr. Chabhi would need an Alcon phaco-emulsification unit Four (4) handpiece, and a reasonable number of consumables therefore. This type is more appropriate both for performance and as it limits the number of necessary consumables. Possibly, he will use his own phaco-unit for this first campaign, but would need the necessary consumables. We would also require the appropriate number of IOL, visco-elastic fluid and relevant surgery consumables, as well as eye drops for pre-op and post-op care. A list with the required diopters provided to Althea by Dr. Chabhi and is attached (Appendix II). After the initial campaign and once the first approximately 200 patients are operated, we will provide statistics and apply for the next batch of IOLs and supplies. This way, we ensure that appropriate reporting is provided. As we will ourselves require pictures and a short narrative report, this material can also be provided to Alcon for use in its publications. One has to note that Dr. Chabhi, with a very long experience, has developed a technique to also operate mature cataracts using phaco-emulsification. This equipment may not be usable for that purpose by other ophthalmologists, unless previously trained by him. Other ophthalmologists may used other techniques they master better, such as the small-incision surgery. We would also appreciate Alcon support in identifying experienced ophthalmologists in Switzerland, the EU or USA, willing to voluntarily contribute by participating in outreach campaigns aside their Moroccan counterparts. www.fondation-althea.org 4 Further steps Once campaigns are well established and running, and when all partners are satisfied with the cooperation and results, therefore establishing as strong mutual partnership, we may further develop the programme. Together with the MoH and Dr. Chabhi, we will prepare a multi-year action plan, including information on the incidence of cataract in the least privileged regions, resources available in terms of specialized manpower, and planning of campaigns. Our common goals are ambitious, but the needs are huge, and with the contribution of very motivated partners, we can certainly make important progress in helping the least privileged Moroccans to regain sight and autonomy, and certainly more happiness. Appendix IV give details of the response to cataract surgery needs in Morocco in the past 20 years. Making one region “a Cataract free zone” would be in itself quite a tremendous achievement, and a notable contribution to the goals of Vision 2020. We are all deeply grateful to Alcon for being a part of the response to this important challenge and sides with us in favor of the most underprivileged women, men and children of Morocco.