WHO to establish eye camps across Afghanistan

KABUL -- Afghanistan’s ministry of public health and the World Health Organisation (WHO) will launch a series of eye examination camps across Afghanistan with the aim of performing 2,000 cataract surgeries within a year, according to a WHO statement.

The first camp is scheduled to open in Dasht-e-Barchi Hospital in Kabul October 21.

Cataracts remain a leading cause of blindness in the country, the statement said. About 1.5m Afghans are visually impaired, a half-million of whom are blind.

Afghan women have a significantly greater risk of vision loss than men.