By Fatima Muhammad
JEDDAH — About 20 percent of the Saudi population suffer from diabetes which in turn increases the visual disabilities.
Visual disabilities can be overcome locally by increasing awareness among the public, doing early check up for children, proving insurance to aging people and reducing the waiting time for consultation at public hospitals, said Mohammad Bello, a board member of the National Prevention of Blindness Committee (NPBC).
According to Bello, who is also a board member of Ebsar Foundation for visually impaired individuals, studies show that about 66 of every 2000 diabetics are expected to become blind. This puts Saudi Arabia at high risk due to the increasing number of diabetes cases in the country, he added.
Bello told Saudi Gazette that there must be comprehensive awareness programs in the Kingdom. He stressed the need to provide effective insurance to aging people especially that many of them are retirees and have low incomes.
According to Bello, a third group that needs attention aside from diabetics and aging people is children. Some cases of blindness could have been avoided if early check ups were provided to children below the age of three and during school, he pointed out.
The national early-detection campaign for eye screening among children examined 21,000 children and at least 20 percent of them needed eye care, Bello said.
He said Saudi Arabia has joined the 2020 global vision “right to sight”, which is determined to overcome avoidable blindness in the world by increasing awareness about visual disabilities on the second Thursday of every October.
Ibrahim Al-Ibrahim, head of Jeddah Eye Hospital, said the International Diabetes Federation has ranked Saudi Arabia as No. 7 on the diabetes scale.
The Ministry of Health figures show that 1.1 million men suffer from the disease and 775,000 women are diabetic, and the uncontrolled diabetic cases add up to 471,000 cases, Bello said.
He warned against the causes of eye diseases and said diabetes tops the causes. He explained that the diabetic eye disease, which can lead to blindness, is one of the critical side effects of the diabetes.
