For the past year, Muanema FAKIRA has noticed strange things about the eyes of his 1 year old daughter Sumaya. Her left eye was cloudy. It wasn't shining with curiosity or sparkling in the sun. When the problem continued, Fakira rounded a round to a health clinic in the town in the center of Mozambique. The doctor said they couldn't help.
However, they knew the person who could do it if Fakira could take the Sumaya on a 100 -mile journey to the coast.
The family traveled to Kerimane City. There, Dr. Isak Basco da Gama examined the eyes of Sumaya and immediately diagnosed congenital cataracts.
Fakira was skeptical. Cataracts are for the elderly, she said. However, Dr. Dagama explained that birth or subsequent infections could cause child cataracts. This condition is particularly worried because the visual problem affects the development of children's physical function. But the good news was that the problem could be solved with a simple surgery, and he did tens of times a week at Quelimane Central Hospital.
Dr. Dagama was one of three pediatrics in Mozambique, a country of 30 million, so this was particularly lucky.
Sumaya had surgery in November and has already recovered one day later. Dr. Dagama was pleased that she met her while she was still young before permanent damage was performed.
It was a sign that the system that he and his colleagues had been introducing for the past few years may have become established. Sumaya's parents were not traditional healers and magicians, but for their medical systems for help. Remove the curse.
When Sumaya was introduced for care, it was a long and expensive trip, but she was relatively promptly helped because she would have devastated her life. Ideally, her cataracts would have been discovered when they were born by a midwife.
“I believe that we can overcome this issue slowly by moving forward,” said Dagama.
Like many Africa south of Sahara, Mozambique has very low perception of eyesight problems and is limited, so few children get necessary care.
In 2021, a global world -global committee reported that 510 million people around the world, 90 % of low -middle and middle -income and middle -income countries did not fix vision disorders. In other words, it didn't look appropriately because there were no glasses.
The result is enormous. Children who have lost vision in these countries are much less likely to be at school. One study shows that for those who go to school, those who have no visual acuity are learned about half of their colleagues with normal vision.
Access to treatment is very limited because of the lack of trained staff, and visual care could not be integrated into a health system. Children have not been screened about loss of vision, and parents and teachers do not understand the simple causes of eye problems that are distracted, lack of physical adjustment, and behavioral problems.
Mozambique has only 20 ophthalmologists from 6 people 20 years ago. Almost all of them are based in Mapt, the southern capital.
Dr. Dagama completed research in India in 2017 and established a clinic in Kerimane, a port town on a long Indian coastline in Mozambique. But surprisingly, he saw a very small number of patients in the first year. He discovered that no one was introduced to him because the healthcare professional did not recognize the treatment that could be treated. He started traveling to a local clinic and talked to medical workers about screening and solutions.
Later, he set up a team with The Charity Light for the World and supported him to complete specialized training in Tanzania's pediatric eye care. They have designed an outreach program to find a way to find a child in a new ophthalmology ward at the new ophthalmology ward at the new ophthalmology ward at the new ophthalmology ward at the new ophthalmology ward at the new ophthalmology ward at the new ophthalmology ward at the new ophthalmology ward at the new ophthalmology ward of teachers, community medical workers, traditional healers, traditional healers, and local leaders.
Now, several times a year, for up to one month at a time, he uses a mobile clinic for a small community to perform surgery for children with cataracts, glaucoma, or strabismus (aligned eyes).
Cataracts cause almost half of the preventive blindness of Mozambique children. They may be the result of genetic, or trauma (like eye rods and stones), or unprocessed eye infections.
On his outreach trip, Dr. Dagama teaches other medical workers how to do simple surgery and conditions. “The operation of itself is not a problem. We can train in two weeks for one week. It is a method of operating cataracts,” he said. “But it's a way to identify children who need surgery.”
The Ministry of Health in Mozambique is trying to build a visual acuity issue and a refractive error awareness.
Glasses and simple surgery to keep children at school can change the future of family and the whole country. “The future of the economy will be affected if you have few children or have less skills,” he said.
QUELIMANE also sees DA GAMA cases of retinal germination, which is the cancer of the retina. If the patient comes early, he can save his life, even if he is not an eye.
Camillo Rosary took her daughter Grace (3) to his clinic in November, from a 300 kilometer (about 185 miles) village. She had a tumor protruding from her eyes, causing an unbearable pain. Rosary said he began to complain about her eyes a few weeks ago. He was worried and moved from his feet to his feet, but Dr. Dagama explained that he would have a quick surgery to remove the tumor, but he was afraid that his illness was already in his brain.
Grace quickly recovered from the first surgery and clung to his father with bulky bandages around his head. But as Dr. Dagama was afraid, she was too late to him. She died in early January.
Aminata hippo was screened with a high school classmate last year and was surprised to know that she was myopic. After she got her glasses, the school became much easier and her grades improved quickly. Now she says, she wants to continue at school and she wants to be a lawyer.
Screening for older children is easy. Dr. Dagama said that cooperating with small things is a much bigger challenge. They rarely see where they need them for eye tests. Idrop, equipment, and even his white coats are all terrible. He said he sang to smile and distract, and removed the coat as needed.
“I like difficult things,” he said.
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