A central Chinese city has launched a campaign with an ambitious goal of offering free medical treatment to all of its cataract patients.

The government of Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of Henan, central China, has decided to offer free vision restoring surgery to cataract patients in three years beginning from this year, said sources from the city government.

Altogether 55,000 people have been suffering from impairment of vision or total blindness because of diverse reasons in the city, of whom, 30,000 have had their vision damaged partially or completely due to incidence of cataract.

In accordance with a document, entitled Opinions Regarding Launch of A Obstacle-Free Campaign for Cataract Patients, the city has put forward six standards, including no obstacle in leadership in relevant organizing work by the government, no obstacle for access of knowledge about prevention and medical treatment of cataract, no obstacle for cataract patients to get vision restoration operation free of charge.

To guarantee a smooth run of the campaign, the city government of Zhengzhou has also made it clear that it would set aside three million yuan (about US$ 375,000) for cataract-inflicted vision-impaired surgery each year, while governments of different urban districts and suburban counties under the city are also told to prepare at least 200,000 yuan (about US$ 25,000) each for support of the campaign.

(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2007)