National blindness programme broadens approach

Speaking at the Sekgoma Memorial Hospital during this year's World Sight Day recently, the minister said a study conducted in Botswana among adults aged 50 years and above in 2006 revealed that 3.7 percent of the population is blind. She said the main causes of blindness in Botswana are cataract, diabetic retinopathy, corneal scars, trachoma and glaucoma.

Cataract - the clouding of the lens of the eye - is the cause of 50 percent of blindness and poor eyesight in Botswana. Somolekae said it can be effectively cured with an eye operation, which only takes 20 minutes to perform.