India has the world's largest cataract backlog, with approximately 7 million individuals in need of cataract surgery (1). This is after the launch of the National Programme for the Control of Blindness, and of Vision 2020the right to sight programmewhich lead to a considerable improvement in the situation. Currently, 5 million cataract surgeries are performed every year, up from only 0.5 million in 1976. This is a big achievement, particularly with the scarce human resources and poor physical infrastructure available in the country. But though the number of operations has gone up, the quality still needs improvement. Still, surgical complications arising from cataract surgery are the cause of just a fraction of blindness according to surveys conducted across the country (1).Due to the huge backlog, we try to do as much work as possible, and as fast as possible. And every now and then, we hear about cluster infections. Recently, four episodes of cluster infections were reported. One was reported from a government hospital in Assam in January 2008, and another from Valsad district, Gujarat, at an NGO hospital in February 2008. The third was reported from a surgical camp conducted by an NGO in Barabanki district, Uttar Pradesh, in February 2008 and the fourth occurred at an NGO hospital in Trichy, Tamilnadu, in September 2008.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.