According to The World Health Organization (WHO), cataract surgeries are amongst the most cost-effective health interventions, yet cataracts remain the leading cause of blindness in Africa with WHO claiming that by 2050, there could be 115 million people who are cataract blind.

It is estimated that in South Africa there could be around a quarter of a million people who are blind or partially blind due to untreated cataracts as a result of the backlog.

In response to this,  global eyecare company Alcon  has launched  its Phaco Development Program in South Africa, and will ultimately launch on a Pan-African level as well.

For more on this issue, Jan Landman, Country Manager at Alcon South Africa spoke to Lulu Gaboo...