A BBC profile from Sightsavers:
Eye surgeons in Mali travel long distances in extreme heat on motorbikes visiting remote villages to try and eliminate one of the leading causes of preventable blindness.
They go from village to village and treat anyone with the advanced stages of trachoma, a bacterial infection, before it causes irreversible blindness. Trachoma is common in children and the women who care for them. It is infectious and is spread by coming into direct contact with the discharge produced from the eyes or nose of an infected person through contaminated objects such as towels. Flies also transfer the bacteria from the discharge.
The locally trained health workers upload their findings by mobile phone to a central system. They report the number of people they screen for the disease, the surgeries they carry out, and the number of follow-up consultations they provide...[continue reading]
