Amid the rising number of people suffering from avoidable blindness, Uganda has opened its first optometry centre at Makerere University hospital. The facility will provide both practical training to students pursuing a Bachelor of Optometry and offer specialized eye care service to the community.

According to the Ministry of Health, Uganda has a scarcity of trained eye care professionals to provide accessible care and this directly contributes too many cases of avoidable blindness in the country. Dr. Joyce Moriku, the State Minister for Primary Health Care noted that Uganda has only four registered optometrists out of the nine in the country.
“Only three of the registered optometrists are in Uganda and they can’t provide eye care services to over 34 million Ugandans,” Dr. Moriku said. She made this revelation at the launch of the Academic Vision Centre at Makerere University Hospital.