The latest survey on 5,000 eye disease sufferers has shown that cataracts are the leading eye disease that leads to blindness in the Tibet Autonomous Region, southwest China.

The survey, jointly carried out by the regional health bureau and the SEVA foundation of the United States, targeted eye diseases and eye health protection among locals in Shannan, Nagqu and Nyingchi areas.

The survey shows that the incidence of cataracts in Tibet is 14.6 percent, much higher than in other places of China. This means about 360,000 out of the 2.63 million people in the region are cataract patients.

Tibet has 16,988 people who become blind because of cataracts, accounting for half of its total number of blind people, according to the survey.

The survey also shows that cataracts are also the top disease leading to blindness among the working population, aged between 15 and 50, and children.

But experts said that about 50 percent of the region's 6,096 blind children could regain their eyesight through cataract operation.

Curable cataracts, lack of crystalline lens, ametropia and preventable corneal opacity, some eyeball diseases and pathological changes of yellow spots are currently the major eye diseases and factors that lead to blindness among the people in Tibet, according to the survey.

And, a shortage of oxygen, cold weather and strong ultraviolet radiation on the highland in Tibet are regarded as the major causes of the high incidence of cataract and cataract-caused blindness in the region.

Based on the survey results, it is estimated that Tibet has 33,507 blind people and 241,000 people suffering poor eyesight. And the number of people suffering blindness caused by cataracts is rising by about 5,000 annually.

To turn the situation for the better, the local government has started eye disease prevention and treatment since the late 1950s.Currently, a network consisting of regional, prefectural and county-level eye disease treatment agencies has been set up across the region.

Over 32,000 cataract patients in the region have undergone transplant of artificial crystalline lenses in the past 10 years, about 20,000 of whom have regain their eyesight, said Zhou Faqiang,an official with the regional health bureau.

(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2004)