County Health and Sanitation Department, supported by Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) and Kenya Society for the Blind (KSB), held a two-day free medical camp at the Lorugum Sub-county Hospital where patients with eye conditions received the necessary treatment and medications for free.

This is the first eye medical camp held in Lorugum, Loima Sub-county to address the high risk of trachoma prevalence in the region that stands at 11%. Thus, Department of Health and supporting partners made the camp a one-stop shop for treatment of eye and other conditions.

In his closing remarks, Chief Officer for Health and Sanitation Capt. (Rtd) Augustine Lokwang appreciated KSB, IRA and Loima MOH teams for pulling together to make the eye camp successful with desirable outcomes.

Referring to earlier engagements between the county government with Kenya Society for the Blind executive leadership, CCO Lokwang hinted on plans for formal framework for collaboration on eye Care health services.

He said that a broad-based MoU with KSB will enable the County department to plug into the extensive eye care network of partners, expertise to improve service delivery and expanded resource mobilisation.

“The turnout of the medical camp demonstrates that similar camps and outreaches were needed to cover the remote areas of the county as well as attend to the eye diseases which are treatable, avoidable and preventable,” he said.

He appealed to IRA and KSB to plan similar other eye camps to benefit other needy sub-counties.

The eye camp received more than 1,000 patients from which 70 were found to require cataract surgery. The chief officer tasked the county ophthalmic team to follow-up with the cataract patients and ensure surgeries are undertaken to restore sight.

Daniel Masese, the KSB team lead, said that his organisation would analyse the data collected from the over 1000 patients and provide findings to the county government for planning purposes. KSB was also providing white walking sticks to the blind and UV sun glasses to prevent eye conditions due to too much light.

The IRA team lead, Rosemary Kaviri appreciated the county health team for the mobilisation and was impressed by the turnout considering vastness of the sub-county.

Other medical services offered included diabetic and hypertension screening, screening of (cervical, breast and prostate cancer), dental services, family planning and nutritional services, volunteer counselling and testing (VCT) by general practitioners.

Other county government health officers present were Samson Lokele (County Ophthalmic Services Coordinator), Peter Lomorukai (Sub- county Medical Health Officer – Loima) and Richard Lowoto (Sub-county Eye Care Coordinator – Loima).