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Flying eye hospital lands in Taiwan to promote eye safety

The Orbis Flying Eye Hospital, which was launched in 1982 and has traveled to 76 countries, landed in Taiwan yesterday on a mission to promote vocational safety for eyes.

The flying hospital, a refurbished DC-10 jet aircraft kitted out with medical equipment, brings the gift of sight to underdeveloped countries where 90 percent of preventable blindness occurs, Luis Echauri, a staff ophthalmologist from the hospital told a press conference held in the airplane.

"In 2006 the Bureau of Labor Insurance commissioned Orbis Taiwan to conduct a nationwide survey, and we found vocational eye trauma to be the third most common cause of blindness in the country," said Chan Chang-chuan (詹長權), Orbis Taiwan's project director and a public health professor at the National Taiwan University. "So this year, our free education program took off to teach at-risk workers how to protect their eyes."

Most vocational eye injuries affect young adult male workers with low socioeconomic status and education levels. They usually work in heavy industries, construction and farming, Chan said.

"Seasoned workers are at a higher risk," he said, "and most cases occur when the workers are under time pressure, distracted or fatigued."

Citing the survey results, Chan said that in Taiwan 6,600 cases of eye injury occur annually in the work place and cost NT$450,000 on average to treat.

"Not only are the injuries emotionally and economically devastating to the [injured] workers' families, the loss of able workers is also costly to society," Chan said.

"Orbis' mission is to travel to underdeveloped countries to train local ophthalmologists and nurses and treat under-served patients," Echauri said. "Of the 37 million people who are blind worldwide, 75 percent of them could have had their blindness prevented or restored if they had access to proper medical care."

In Taiwan, where the national health insurance offers Taiwanese excellent medical care, prevention is key, Orbis Taiwan public relations manager Wendy Liang (梁惠雯) said.

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," Chan said. "We urge employers in high-risk industries to contact us for free workshops on how their employees can take proper precautions to prevent these occupational hazards."

To sign up for workshops and get involved in helping their cause, log onto www.orbis.org.tw to find out more.
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