Up to 23,000 children in Vietnam are blind in both eyes and half of these cases could have been preventable if getting timely treatment, statistics from the Hanoi-based Central Eye Hospital showed. The hospital also warned of an increase of children suffering from refractive errors, including an estimated three million children aging less than 16, the Hanoi moi online newspaper reported. Each year between 8,000 and 10,000 Vietnamese ophthalmological patients are in need of surgery. However, the country’s health sector can meet only one third of the demand.
