Fred Hollows Foundation Chief Executive Dr. Audrey Aumua warns that eye health issues in the country are set to take their toll, as according to surveys, rates of blindness and vision impairment in Fiji are unacceptably high.

Dr. Aumua highlighted this during the first-ever charity ball for the Pacific Eye Institute last night at the State House, where over $160,000 was raised.

Dr. Aumua stresses that 90 percent of the conditions in the region are preventable or treatable, and people don’t need to go blind.

Dr. Audrey Aumua draws attention to the high rates of non-communicable diseases in Fiji, particularly diabetes, with a specific condition called diabetic retinopathy, a major cause of irreversible blindness.

“30 percent of their patients that come through their clinic at Brown Street have some form of diabetic retinopathy, and what we know about that statistic is that it is significantly higher than the global rates, so we are well and truly off the mark.”

Dr. Aumua says current statistics represent big challenges ahead that call for stakeholder collaboration.

“The foundation itself sees that its primary role is to support Fiji to continue to build its eye-care workforce so that the health system here can be ready to respond to these growing health challenges.”

She says the Foundation has been supporting the Pacific Eye Institute for more than a decade.