This little girl from northern Peru received treatment from the Instituto Regional de Oftalmologia -- an ORBIS partner in Trujillo.

ORBIS doesn't have an office in Latin America or the Caribbean but does engage in long-term projects. In Jamaica, ORBIS focuses on cataract care and orbital trauma. In Peru, the emphasis is on retinal disease, especially retinopathy of prematurity. ORBIS has also conducted projects in Costa Rica and Guyana.

ORBIS sponsored the Caribbean’s first regional biomedical engineering training workshop in Jamaica in partnership with the Pan American Health Organization, the Ministry of Health of Jamaica and the American College of Clinical Engineering.

Given the high cost of medical equipment and the fact that the majority of malfunctioning equipment can be maintained or rehabilitated for a fraction of the cost of replacement, ORBIS and its partners used this workshop as a forum for developing new strategies to ensure that medical equipment can be repaired using local expertise.

2008 achievements

During 2008, through five projects taking place in Peru and Jamaica:

• Nearly 1,400 doctors and other eye care staff received training
• Over 44,500 people received eye examinations
• More than 37,000 children and adults received non-surgical ophthalmic and medical treatment
• Over 2,000 eye surgeries were performed

ORBIS "firsts" in Latin America and the Caribbean

ORBIS has achieved numerous “firsts” in blindness prevention and treatment in Latin America and the Caribbean:

• This little girl was successfully treated for retinopathy of prema- turity and no longer faces a world of blindness.

  In 1982, the president of Peru created the country’s first eye bank after watching a corneal transplant onboard the Flying Eye Hospital.
  
  
• ORBIS introduced Cyber-Sight, ORBIS’s telemedicine initiative, to provide worldwide, Internet-based ophthalmic patient consultation for free to any qualified partner in Latin America and the Caribbean.
  
  
• Jamaican and Peruvian doctors received training on virtual reality surgery simulators for the first time during ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital programs.

Through ORBIS, ophthalmologists in Latin America and the Caribbean can now receive continuing medical education credit through the American Academy of Ophthalmology for online work completed by Cyber-Sight partners and for virtual reality surgeries

ORBIS partners in Latin America and the Caribbean include:

Bustamante Hospital for Children ( Jamaica) • Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social ( Costa Rica) • Fundación para Desarrollo del HNN ( Costa Rica) • Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation ( Guyana) • Hospital Nacional de Niños ( Costa Rica) • Regional Ophthalmologic Institute of Trujillo ( Peru)


Costa Rica Fact File

Population	4,173,0001
Population under 15	29.7%2
Population living below national poverty line	22%3
Rural population	39.4%4
Life expectancy	775
Under 5 mortality rate (per 1000)	106
Literacy rate	95.87
GDP per capita	$4,3528
Health expenditure per capita	$3839
Health expenditure as % of total government expenditure	24.410
Prevalence of blindness	0.311
Blind population	12,51912
Prevalence of low vision	1.713
Population with low vision	79,28714
Prevalence of blindness under 15	0.06215
Leading causes of blindness	Cataract (40%), glaucoma (15%), childhood blindness (6.4%), diabetic retinopathy (7%)16
Leading causes of childhood blindness	Cataract, ROP, glaucoma, teratogens17
Ophthalmologists per million population	24.418
Number of ophthalmologists	10119

Footnotes

*Blindness is defined as visual acuity of less than 3/60 or a corresponding visual field loss to less than 10 degrees in the better eye with best possible correction.
** Low vision is defined as visual acuity of less than 6/18 but equal to or better than 3/60, or a corresponding visual field loss to less than 20 degrees in the better eye with best possible correction.

Guyana Fact File

Population	765,0001
Population under 15	29.8%2
Population living below national poverty line	35%3
Rural population	63.4%4
Life expectancy	625
Under 5 mortality rate (per 1000)	696
Literacy rate	96.5%7
GDP per capita	$9658
Health expenditure per capita	$539
Health expenditure as % of total government expenditure	11.1%10
Prevalence of blindness*	0.3%11
Blind population*	2,29712
Prevalence of low vision**	1.7%13
Population with low vision**	13,00514
Prevalence of blindness under 15 years	0.062484815
Leading causes of blindness	Cataract (40%), glaucoma (15%), childhood blindness (6.4%), diabetic retinopathy (7%)16
Leading causes of childhood blindness	Cataract, ROP, glaucoma, teratogens17
Ophthalmologists per million population	No data18
Number of ophthalmologists	No data19

Footnotes

*Blindness is defined as visual acuity of less than 3/60 or a corresponding visual field loss to less than 10 degrees in the better eye with best possible correction.
** Low vision is defined as visual acuity of less than 6/18 but equal to or better than 3/60, or a corresponding visual field loss to less than 20 degrees in the better eye with best possible correction.

Jamaica Fact File

Population	2,651,0001
Population under 15	32.1%2
Population living below national poverty line	18.7%3
Rural population	48.8%4
Life expectancy	735
Under 5 mortality rate (per 1000)	206
Literacy rate	87.6%7
GDP per capita	$3,0838
Health expenditure per capita	$1809
Health expenditure as % of total government expenditure	5.9%10
Prevalence of blindness*	0.3%11
Blind population*	7,95312
Prevalence of low vision**	1.7%13
Population with low vision**	45,06714
Prevalence of blindness under 15 years	0.06215
Leading causes of blindness	Cataract (40%), glaucoma (15%), childhood blindness (6.4%), diabetic retinopathy (7%)16
Leading causes of childhood blindness	Cataract, ROP, glaucoma, teratogens17
Ophthalmologists per million population	17.118
Number of ophthalmologists	4519

Footnotes

*Blindness is defined as visual acuity of less than 3/60 or a corresponding visual field loss to less than 10 degrees in the better eye with best possible correction.
** Low vision is defined as visual acuity of less than 6/18 but equal to or better than 3/60, or a corresponding visual field loss to less than 20 degrees in the better eye with best possible correction.

Peru Fact File

Population	27,167,0001
Population under 15	33.2%2
Population living below national poverty line	49%3
Rural population	26.1%4
Life expectancy	705
Under 5 mortality rate (per 1000)	346
Literacy rate	87.7%7
GDP per capita	$2,2318
Health expenditure per capita	$939
Health expenditure as % of total government expenditure	12.4%10
Prevalence of blindness	0.5%11
Blind population	135,83512
Prevalence of low vision	2%13
Population with low vision	543,34014
Prevalence of blindness under 15 years	0.062%15
Leading causes of blindness	Cataract (58.5%), glaucoma (15%), diabetic retinopathy (7%), childhood blindness (5.3%)16
Leading causes of childhood blindness	Cataract, ROP, glaucoma, teratogens17
Ophthalmologists per million population	29.918
Number of ophthalmologists	80019

Footnotes

*Blindness is defined as visual acuity of less than 3/60 or a corresponding visual field loss to less than 10 degrees in the better eye with best possible correction.
** Low vision is defined as visual acuity of less than 6/18 but equal to or better than 3/60, or a corresponding visual field loss to less than 20 degrees in the better eye with best possible correction.