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A man is
being tested near Kenya's lakeside town of Naivasha,
on August 28, 2013 (AFP/File,
Tony Karumba)
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NAIVASHA,
Kenya — Simon Kamau, 26, has been in almost constant pain since he was a
playful three-year-old and accidentally pierced his eye with a sharp object,
but smartphone technology now offers hope.
His family
live in an impoverished part of rural Naivasha in Kenya's Rift Valley region
and could not afford the 80-kilometre (50-mile) journey to the nearest
specialist hospital, leaving the young Kamau blind in one eye ever since.
Today, 23
years later, Kamau has a chance to better his quality of life thanks to a team
of doctors from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine armed with
an innovative, low cost, smartphone solution.
"Kenya
was a natural test location," the project's team leader, Dr Andrew
Bastawrous, told AFP. "For a country with a population of more than 40
million, there are only 86 qualified eye doctors, 43 of whom are operating in
the capital Nairobi."
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Mary Wambui
(R) is being tested with a
smartphone visual-test application, in
Kianjokoma
village, on August 28, 2013
(AFP/File, Tony Karumba)
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The
equipment used in the study, which has been running for five years and is now
in its final stages, is a smartphone with an add-on lens that scans the retina,
plus an application to record the data.
The
technology is deceptively simple to use and relatively cheap: each 'Eye-Phone',
as Bastawrous likes to call his invention, costs a few hundred euros (dollars),
compared to a professional ophthalmoscope that costs tens of thousands of euros
and weighs in at around 130 kilogrammes (290 pounds).
Bastawrous
said he hopes the 'Nakuru Eye Disease Cohort Study', which has done the rounds
of 5,000 Kenyan patients, will one day revolutionise access to eye treatment
for millions of low-income Africans who are suffering from eye disease and
blindness.
With 80
percent of the cases of blindness considered curable or preventable, the
potential impact is huge.
Data from
each patient is uploaded to a team of specialists, who can come up with a
diagnosis and advise on follow-up treatment. The results are also compared to
tests taken with professional equipment to check the smartphone is a viable
alternative.
Bastawrous
says his 'Eye-Phone' has proved its worth, and can easily and accurately
diagnose ailments including glaucoma, cataracts, myopia and long-sightedness.
Treatments
range from prescription glasses and eye drops to complex surgery that is
conducted once every two weeks at a hospital in Nakuru, the nearest big town.
So far, up to 200 of the 5,000 people involved in the study have had surgery to
correct various eye ailments.
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Mary Wambui
gets her eyes examined
at her home in Kianjokoma village, on
August 28, 2013
(AFP/File, Tony Karumba)
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Kamau is
among those expecting to receive surgery on his blind eye. While doctors say he
is unlikely to recover his full vision because the injury was so long ago, they
can at least stop the pain and swelling caused by the additional strain on his
functioning eye.
"I can
hardly do manual work around the farm. Once the sun shines, my eyes water and I
feel a lot of pain," said Kamau, who lives on a small farm with six family
members.
Neighbour
Mary Wambui, 50, has had eye problems for 36 years but gave up on finding
treatment because existing medical care was far too expensive. Instead, she
settled for home remedies like placing a cold wet cloth over her eyes when the
pain became unbearable.
"I was
treated at the Kijabe Mission hospital but the follow-up visits became too
expensive. I had to pay bus fares and then queue in the waiting room for the
whole day, and then go back home without seeing a doctor," she recalled.
She said
Bastawrous' project, in which the tests were carried out at her home, was a
welcome relief.
"I do
not like the feel of hospitals. Their process is long, laborious and costly but
with this phone, I got to know of my diagnosis with just a click," she
said.
Bastawrous
says the success of the smartphone meant it could soon be replicated in other
poor areas of Kenya. He said the arid Turkana area, one of Kenya's poorest
regions, was next on the list.
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