Good vision ‘key to survival’

After being fitted with glasses following a cataract operation, boy sits in class on his first ever day in school. Copyright: Tommy Trenchard/Sightsavers, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

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<h1>Good vision ‘key to survival’</h1>
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<p><strong>Season 2, Episode 16</strong></p>
<p>An estimated three million people in Uganda live with vision loss, and more than 80,000 of them are blind. The most common cause of blindness in Uganda — cataracts — can be corrected with straightforward surgery. But with only 45 eye doctors for 46 million people, treatment is out of reach in many of Uganda’s communities.</p>
<p>Gladys Atto is the sole ophthalmologist serving 1.2 million people in Uganda’s remote Karamoja region. Atto – who recently won the prestigious Josephine Nambooze Women in Medicine award – tells Africa Science Focus that a new Sightsavers-supported ‘superstructure’ will mean she can begin training new doctors to help with her mission to reverse avoidable blindness.</p>
<p><strong><em>Africa Science Focus</em></strong><strong>, with Michael Kaloki.</strong><strong> </strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.scidev.net/sub-saharan-africa/role-models/qa-the-eye-doctor-restoring-sight-to-nomadic-herders/"><strong>Learn more about </strong><strong>Gladys Atto’s career</strong></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.carnegie.org/"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1894676 lazyload" data-src="https://www.scidev.net/wp-content/uploads/Carnegie1.png" alt="Carnegie" width="426" height="200" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" style="--smush-placeholder-width: 426px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 426/200;" /><noscript><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1894676 lazyload" data-src="https://www.scidev.net/wp-content/uploads/Carnegie1.png" alt="Carnegie" width="426" height="200" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" style="--smush-placeholder-width: 426px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 426/200;" /><noscript><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1894676" src="https://www.scidev.net/wp-content/uploads/Carnegie1.png" alt="Carnegie" width="426" height="200" /></noscript></noscript></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>This programme was funded by the <a href="https://www.carnegie.org/">Carnegie Corporation of New York</a>.</em></p>
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<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/sub-saharan-africa/africa-science-focus/good-vision-key-to-survival/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
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Season 2, Episode 16

An estimated three million people in Uganda live with vision loss, and more than 80,000 of them are blind. The most common cause of blindness in Uganda — cataracts — can be corrected with straightforward surgery. But with only 45 eye doctors for 46 million people, treatment is out of reach in many of Uganda’s communities.

Gladys Atto is the sole ophthalmologist serving 1.2 million people in Uganda’s remote Karamoja region. Atto – who recently won the prestigious Josephine Nambooze Women in Medicine award – tells Africa Science Focus that a new Sightsavers-supported ‘superstructure’ will mean she can begin training new doctors to help with her mission to reverse avoidable blindness.

Africa Science Focus, with Michael Kaloki.

Learn more about Gladys Atto’s career