Society

Program to provide surgery for rural cataract patients

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-02-24 17:08
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BEIJING - Around 11,000 needy cataract patients in China's rural areas will receive surgery in 2011 from mobile medical clinics, said the program's organizer here Thursday.

Four trains, each with four carriages and carrying advanced medical instruments and eye surgeons, will stop at 11 stations in seven provinces and autonomous regions this year to conduct free cataract surgery, said a statement from Lifeline Express Foundation.

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The four trains will depart from Beijing's west railway station on April 11, after a ceremony.

The foundation has operated the Chinese Lifeline Express program since 1997, and since then its mobile train hospitals have stopped at 105 train stations in 27 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions all over China, providing free cataract removal operation to more than 110,000 poor patients.

Millions of rural Chinese have lost their eyesight due to cataracts. Many rural cataract suffers in China go without proper medical treatment due to the poor state of rural medical services.

The program, the only one operating train hospitals in China, aims to help them restore eyesight and start a new life, the statement said.