Around three million
children at the age of 5-16 have to wear glasses, according to Dr. Nguyen Chi
Dung from the Central
Eye Hospital.

Dr. Dung said that
around 15-40 percent of the population have eye defects. Kids are the major
subjects for these.

At present, up to
40-50 percent of pupils in cities and 10-15 percent of pupils in the
countryside suffer from eye defects. Around 10 percent of poor pupils need
assistance to be able to buy glasses.

Experts said that
the rate of kids with eye defects is rising, since they study without
sufficient light and spend a lot of time watching TV, play computer games, etc.

Dr. Do Nhu Hon,
director of the Central Eye Hospital,
said that Vietnam
has about 1.5 million blind people and around 500,000 people who lost eyesight
due to eye diseases, mainly cataract
(66 percent), Glaucoma (6.5 percent) and side-effects after operations (4.1
percent).

According to Hon, the number of people who are losing eyesight
has fell in comparison with ten years ago, thanks to the assistance of the
government as well as domestic and foreign organizations.

However, a recent national survey revealed that around 10-30
percent of poor patients cannot afford eye treatment. Health insurance can
cover from 30-80 percent of treatment fees.

Vietnam
also lacks eye doctors, for example Binh Dinh province in central Vietnam
has only 31 eye doctors.

Experts said that Vietnam should have a plan to help
poor patients and train more eye doctors.

PV