Thousands of patients showed up at Mawlamyine General Hospital earlier this month hoping to undergo free cataract surgery provided by a medical team from Banphaeo Hospital in Samut Sakhon. And even though only 219 were chosen, a surgery machine was also donated to a local hospital.

Cataract problems are prevalent and severe in Myanmar’s Mon State, as many people don’t have the money or opportunity to seek medical treatment.

But with the new Phacoemulsification machine donated by Siam Cement Plc (SCG), doctors believe that treating cataracts will become more efficient and this problem will be reduced in the near future.

Banphaeo Hospital executive board chairman Dr Manit Theeratantikanon said Myanmar was one of the countries where statistics show a prevalence of cataract-induced blindness and there were many serious cases even after the launch of the project last year.

“Given that a large segment of the elderly population is affected, the patients outnumber ophthalmologists working in area. Because of this many cataract patients have to live with poor eyesight with a low chance of getting proper treatment. This is why we have come here again,” Manit said.

Dr Naing Oo, an ophthalmologist at Mawlamyine General Hospital, said he was delighted that the Thai team visited and helped out with surgery, but said cataract conditions were still a very big problem in Mon State.

“As we are working in a small hospital in a remote part of Myanmar, we only have three ophthalmologists on duty. The lack of advanced technology is one of our major problems when it comes to treating patients,” Dr Naing said.

He said distance made healthcare inaccessible for many people in Mon State and hoped the next time the Thai team comes it will have a mobile unit, so people in remote areas can also be treated.

“We are very thankful to SCG and the Banphaeo Hospital team for their support and for donating the Phacoemulsification machine. We are currently learning how to operate this machine and I’m sure it can help many patients here,” he said.

Cataracts are caused by deterioration of the eye lens as a result of ageing. Working in bright sunlight for a long time without protection also increases the risk of cataracts. But eye doctors say the condition can be easily cured by surgery, with the deteriorated lens cut off and replaced with an artificial one.

This was the second time this team had visited Mawlamyine. The town, formerly known as Moulmein, is east of Mae Sot near the mouth of the Salween River. Many patients who were treated last year recounted how their lives had changed thanks to better eyesight.

“I can see clearly with my right eye thanks to the surgery last year. I have come here to have my left eye treated, as I can hardly see with it,” Ngwe Aung, a 90-year-old woman, said.

“Life was very difficult earlier, because I could not see with both my eyes. My children could not help me all the time because they all have work, and I felt quite useless. After my right eye was fixed, I can do a lot of things by myself.”

In October 2015, SCG and Banphaeo Hospital Bureau deployed a team of ophthalmologists for the first time in Mawlamyine and successfully treated 209 patients. Many of the patients returned this year to have their second eye operated on.

But there were many new faces too. Daw Kyawe, an 80-year-old woman came from the nearby town of Zar Ta Pyin, to get free surgery.

“My eyesight has been blurred for many years and I have never visited a doctor before because it was quite a long way from my home, and most importantly, she could not afford the treatment,” Kyawe said. She explained that she lived alone as her husband has passed away and all |her children were working in Thailand.

“My life is tough. I have to gather vegetables from the forest to sell at the market and it is very difficult because my eyesight is poor,” she said. “I hope my eyesight will become clearer again after surgery. This is the greatest gift I have received in many years.”

Dr Sittika Kokekhuntod, an ophthalmologist from Banphaeo, said many patients with serious cataract problems visited the team this year.

“We learnt all the patients treated last year have gained eyesight and a lot more showed up this time. Unfortunately, we could not treat everybody due to limited resources, so we had to select those who needed medical assistance the most,” Sittika said.

She said that from her experience, the severity of the problem in Myanmar was far greater than in Thailand and some people had already become blind from the condition, and many had almost lost their sight. Many had lost their sight because they could not get treated earlier.

“It gets tougher to fully recover from a cataract if it is left untreated for a long time. We rarely see patients with such serious cataracts in Thailand, because treatment is widely available,” she said.