Treatment of cataract blindness has come a long way in Vietnam since Professor Fred Hollows first visited in 1992. Fred had been invited by the government to demonstrate modern surgery techniques with local doctors.

At that time around one million Vietnamese people needed cataract surgery and of those, 350,000 people were bilaterally cataract blind. 

Today, 800,000 people have cataract blindness, with an additional annual incidence of 82,000 cases.

According to national statistics, more than 100,000 cataract operations are performed each year, compared to 100 operations when The Foundation first began working in the country in 1993.

As part of the Vietnam Blindness Prevention Program, The Foundation currently works in the provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Quang Nam, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Vinh Long, Dak Lak, Quang Ngai, Thua Thien Hue and Da Nang City.

The Foundations provincial projects are implemented in partnership with the provincial health bureaus or departments of health, who have contributed physical, human and financial resources to the projects.

The Foundation maintains it's strong partnership with the Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology (VNIO) in Hanoi where Fred first trained Vietnamese eye surgeons in 1992 in the conduct of ECCE+IOL cataract surgery - an event that the VNIO still marks as a "revolution in ophthalmology" in Vietnam.

Find out more about the program.

The Fred Hollows Foundation Vietnam
Address: Lo 71 Le Do Street, Da Nang City, Vietnam
Phone: +84 511 3712 666
Fax: +84 511 3712 566
Email: fhfvn@hollows.org.vn

 Visit the Vietnam Program website to view this information in Vietnamese.