ABSTRACT
Over 180,000 Cambodian people are blind and a further 10,000 suffer avoidable blindness each year. Ninety percent of this blindness is avoidable, 79% is curable and 11% is preventable. Three-quarters of this blindness is due to cataracts and the remainder is due to uncorrected vision, glaucoma, corneal scarring and pterygium. The Khmer Sight Foundation (KSF) is a charity reincarnated by Professor Sunil Shah and Sean Ngu. Its mission is to deliver a sustainable eye care model for the country. KSF takes a three pronged approach to this. It is working to develop sustainable eye-care within the country through building physical infrastructure. The second approach is to impact the current cataract backlog of over 300,000 patients with the aid of international support. Thirdly, KSF is paving the way for the next generation through the development of an optometry education programme and training of Cambodian ophthalmologists. Here we present the workings of KSF, clinical cases we have encountered and elaborate upon the future goals of this charity.
Subject(s)
Cataract , Ophthalmology , Southeast Asian People , Humans , Cambodia , Blindness/prevention & controlABSTRACT
Purpose: To describe the challenges faced by uveitis specialists when managing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) -infected patients diagnosed with ocular opportunistic infections. Methods: Narrative Review Results: Management of opportunistic ocular infections in HIV-infected subjects still represents a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Atypical and aggressive clinical features can often mislead the correct diagnosis, leading to a delay in therapy and thus, a poor clinical outcome. The reliability of standard serological tests may be affected by the immune system response, further contributing to the diagnostic challenge. Life-long monitoring and long-term antimicrobial maintenance are necessary to avoid recurrences and disease dissemination. Conclusions: A multidisciplinary approach is needed to achieve the best standard of care for HIV patients with ocular opportunistic infections.
