Dr Nyholm and a team from Christian Blind Mission (CBM) flew with MAF from Kampala, Uganda into southern Sudan to conduct a two-week eye camp.
Here, Dr Nyholm reports:
‘The first outreach this year has taken us to Rumbek, a major town in the Lake State, a central part of South Sudan. CBM has visited Rumbek three times, in the years 2003, 2004 and 2009.
'Our 5 member team landed on January 12th. Work started the following day. Although the eye camp had been announced only for 2 days on the radio, already 300 patients had been registered and had lined up early in the morning for examination. The queue never really finished until the second to last day, when we mainly dealt with prescription of eye glasses and minor eye problems (allergic conjunctivitis).
'Our working day started as usual at 7.30 am with postoperative ward round, that took about one hour, followed by screening and examination of eye patients. Every day an average of 70 eye patients were seen. About half of those were listed for operations. Surgery started at approx. 11.30 am and continued to about 6.30 pm. In that time we managed to operate on about 30 cataracts.
'A total of 796 eye patients were examined. 306 operations were performed. Of those, 281 were cataracts and 15 trachoma. It is interesting to notice, that despite several visits to Rumbek by the CBM team and others, bilateral cataracts dominated.
‘We performed 176 bilateral cataract operations. These patients had been blind for years and could hardly distinguish between light and darkness! 23 patients had unilateral cataracts. 82 patients had been operated on previously in one eye and now came for the second eye.
'Patients who did not qualify for surgery suffered from corneal and intraoccular scars, in many cases caused by River blindness. Four children were operated on and 44 eye glasses were given out, mostly for reading.
'We only found 15 trachoma cases eligible for surgery. In my opinion trachoma is declining in South Sudan, at least in towns and major centres. This is indeed encouraging.'
Dr Nyholm concludes: 'I am pleased with the outcome of the eye camp this year. So many people have regained vision and consequently a better quality of life. So many families have been alleviated from the burden of looking after their blind, because they now can manage themselves. Many children bound up in the responsibility of guiding a blind person can instead go to school.’
Road travel in southern Sudan is difficult, sometimes impossible due to poor or non-existent roads. Flying with MAF enabled the team to arrive quickly, maximizing the time spent in the operating theatre.