The Dr. Philip Tongun Foundation, a Juba-based charity says they have registered more than 100 eye patients, some of who have been operated on, in the ongoing free eye treatment camp at the Juba Teaching Hospital.
Emmanuel Tongun, the Foundation’s Director told Radio Tamazuj Thursday that most of the patients suffer from cataracts and are mostly women.
The medical camp started on Tuesday and ends on Friday.
“We dedicated the first day to screening and registration. Based on the total of about 120 individuals, 31 of them were diagnosed with cataracts,” he said.
Tongun said patients have come from as far as Western Equatoria, Lakes, and Eastern Equatoria states.
He appealed to people with diabetes to go for eye check-ups at least twice a year saying, “Diabetes is one of the leading causes of blindness.”
Dr. Philip Tongun Foundation was established in 2016 and named after a long-serving ophthalmologist, the Late Dr. Philip Tongun. The foundation, currently based in Juba, Central Equatoria state has conducted about four free eye clinics at the Buluk Eye Hospital in Juba over the past years.
Cataracts and glaucoma are some eye diseases that cause blindness in South Sudan.