Dianing Sari, Jakarta – About 1.5 percent of 228 million Indonesians or 3.4 million are suffering from eye problems that leads to blindness. Health Minister, Siti Fadilah Supari, said that it is mostly caused by cataract. "Half of them have cataract," she said at the exhibition of healthy eyes in Jakarta yesterday.

She also mentioned glaucoma, refraction and retina anomaly as other common sight problems found in Indonesia. The number of cataract sufferers increases every year by 0.1 percent.

Prevalence of refraction anomaly reaches 22.1 percent. "More than 10 percent is suffered by children age 10-19 years old," she said. Unfortunately, not every child can afford to buy eyeglasses while 80 percent of blindness can be prevented by medical action.

In response, the Health Department plans to increase the recipients of social health insurance this year from 76.4 million to 100 million.

Siti said the government cannot work on their own for solving this problem. She suggested community organizations, health community centers, hospitals, and Indonesian ophthalmologists associations be involved.

Meanwhile, the Matahati organization, the host of the exhibition of healthy eyes, targeted to give cataract surgery to 5,000 patients.

Sutarto, the chair of Matahati, said one person is blind every three minutes in Indonesia. He explained that among four million people with eye problems, two million have cancer.