Six million Cameroonians in need of comprehensive eye care – Ophthalmologist.

The eye specialist, who is the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of MICEI, was speaking during a ceremony to launch a project on developing inclusive eye health human resources at the hospital’s premises in Oback, Okola subdivision, Lekie of the Centre region.     

The ceremony, chaired by the Lekie Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, Patrick Simou Kamsu, was also attended by the Country Director of Christian Blind Mission, CBM, Julius Fon, and a host of other officials. 

Speaking during the event, Dr Nkumbe said about six million Cameroonians, representing 20% of the country’s population, are in need of comprehensive eye care services.

He further mentioned that the need is even much higher for people with disabilities, which in turn, considerably reduces their integration in the professional world.

According the eye specialist, the available specialised human resources in the country are limited in quality and quantity to clip the ever-increasing blindness curve in Cameroon and across the sub-Saharan Africa.

Despite efforts made by MICEI, implanted in the locality of Oback by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Africa Eye Foundation, Egyptian-born Prof Akef El Maghraby, to support government efforts, the blindness curve remains high.

The eye hospital located in Obak, Okola subdivision, Lekie division, has been working to promote the fight against avoidable blindness and ensuring the improvement of human resource in the ocular sector in sub-Saharan Africa.

The works at the eye hospital have made it a destination of medical tourism with patients and learners coming from several African countries.

“For the past five years, MICEI has been at the forefront of the relentless fight against avoidable blindness in the Central African sub-region and more precisely in Cameroon,” Dr Nkumbe said.

He added that: “To date, MICEI has carried out more than 280,000 consultations, including more than 42,000 entirely free of charge, thanks to the programme of advanced strategies for rural communities, as well as more than 15,000 surgical operations, including 10,000 for cataract; the first cause of blindness in Africa”. Despite these statistics, which seem to be very encouraging, he noted that they remain relatively low compared to the prevalence of eye diseases in Africa.

“To support the improvement of these human resources, MICEI has trained 220 ophthalmic professionals from 12 African countries and in the upcoming year, Africa Eye Foundation plans to open the first ever International Training Centre for Eye Health Professionals in Central Africa here at Obak,” he further mentioned.   To improve on the inclusive eye health human resources, Dr Nkumbe said they are currently training some trainees from four African countries.  

While lauding the partnership agreement signed between Africa Eye Foundation and CBM, he explained that it will reinforce the training activities for eye care workers in Cameroon and francophone African countries.

“We wish to say a big thank you to CBM, who has been our partner during the past six years, helping MICEI tie the bundle against avoidable blindness,” he stated.