Nearly 300,000 Filipinos are blind

 14-Aug-16, Manila Bulletin 

The Department of Health (DOH) has stressed the need to integrate eye care into public health programs at the local government unit level, disclosing that there are currently nearly 300,000 Filipinos who are blind in both eyes.

Image: Resources for the Blind

“The development of the Community Eye Health Program (CEHP) particularly at the primary level, district, and provincial settings, will be able to make most of shared referral and service delivery network from barangay health stations, rural health units up to tertiary hospitals,” the DOH said in a statement.

The CEHP started in Nueva Ecija, Iloilo, Occidental Mindoro, and Cavite, and is being expanded to the country’s poorest provinces like Eastern Samar, Leyte, and Surigao in coordination with different non-government organizations like the Christoffel Blinden Mission, Fred Hollows Foundation, World Health Organization, National Committee for Sight Preservation and Cataract Foundation of the Philippines.

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