An eye team led by Dr Sture Nyholm from Christian Blind Mission recently restored sight to nearly 300 people in Marial Bai, southern Sudan.

Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) pilot Stuart Fitch flew the eye team from Juba teaching hospital to the remote village, where they spent ten days operating on patients, using two school classrooms as a ward and an operating theatre.

The team examined a total of 596 patients, half of whom underwent surgery. The other half were patients suffering from onchocerciasis (river blindness). Unfortunately, some of these patients were blind beyond repair, but for others mectizan was given out, which has proven effective in the treatment of onchocerciasis.

Mectizan relieves the intense itching and clears larvae from the eye, thus halting the progression towards blindness except in very advanced cases. More than 200 patients received this medication.

On average, 60 patients were screened every day, with five patients operated on per hour.

Dr Nyholm said, "We hardly had any surgical complications (despite some difficult eyes) and most eyes were crystal clear the second post-operative day.

"The post-operative examination was rewarding, and patients loudly expressed their joy for being able to see again after years of darkness."

It is often difficult to perform operations on children in the bush due to complications with anaesthetic. However, four children between the ages of 12 and 15 were able to undergo surgery. Another two children with congenital cataracts were advised to come to the hospital in Juba where proper anaesthetic facilities are available.

Dr Nyholm concluded, "Thanks to the joint efforts by so many here, vision has been restored to almost 300 people. Darkness has turned into light and, in the harsh conditions of this semi-arid desert district, 300 people will have a better chance to survive and enjoy life."

This was the team's second visit to Marial Bai within a year. In 2007, Dr Nyholm and his team operated on a total of 1,682 eye patients in southern Sudan, 1,350 of these being procedures for blinding cataracts.

MAF regularly flies eye teams to remote villages, where they transform lives by restoring sight to thousands of blind people.