Cuban doctors treating patients under the program. | Photo: Twitter / jogre8a
The late revolutionary leaders, Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, launched the program back in 2004.
Operation Miracle, the free Cuban-Venezuelan eyecare program launched in 2004, has brought back the vision of some 688,000 Bolivians.
The Ocular Health Officer for Bolivia’s Ministry of Health, Rodrigo Guzman says most of the surgeries treated those suffering from pterygium, a disease where eye tissue grows due to exposure to wind and sun, a common problem in the country.
Operations have also been successfully performed on cataracts, when opacity of the eye lens prevents light from passing through, causing total or partial sight loss.
The program, which guarantees 100 percent free optometry consultations, exams, surgeries and medications to working-class people, has made 2,957,189 diagnostic consultations in Bolivia.
