Interview - 'We Will Be Back in Two Months'

Emile Sharifi, ORBIS ophthalmologist, talks on the training his team is offering to Cameroonian staff.

How do you evaluate the ORBIS mission in Cameroon?

Great! Cameroonians have been hospitable and it has been a great experience. Surgeries and training programmes are moving on well and so far surgeons in Cameroon are very enthusiastic to learn. It has been a very beneficial exercise to patients and Cameroonian doctors. I feel Cameroon is a place very beneficial for us to come again. We are happy that Cameroonians have opened the door for us to come again and offer our expertise on preventing blindness. We hope to be back because there is always more to learn.

Have you achieved your target of the number of people to treat in Cameroon?

Whenever we go somewhere with a set of trained doctors, we always try to make sure that each doctor handles at least 15 to 20 patients before the mission ends. While in Cameroon, we have been close to achieving this number. Some of our trained experts have already handled 12 patients and others 20. This depends on how patients come in and the nature of the surgery. Some surgery takes time while some like cataract is quick. Glaucoma surgery takes time and those involved in it can do maybe 10 surgeries throughout the mission.

What is the way forward after ORBIS first mission in Cameroon?

Our mission ends tomorrow and we will leave Cameroon the same day. We will be back in two months to see all our patients, know how the Cameroonian doctors are evolving with the new surgical procedures, what results have been achieved and also to give further education and training in the ophthalmology field. We will not come back with the Flying Eye Hospital. Just two members of the team who will come to advise Cameroonian doctors on how to manage patients after surgeries. We hope to be back but nothing firm has been done yet.