Nearly 19,000 people with cataracts and other eye diseases have been operated on in hospitals in the province of Matanzas in recent moths, thanks to the Operation Miracle program.

The majority of those benefiting come from other Latin American nations but also included 4,430 from the host province, mostly from the city of Matanzas and the southern municipality of Jaguey Grande.

Vice President Carlos Lage visited the Jose de Sucre Ophthalmologic Teaching-Hospital over the weekend. The facility has state-of-the-art equipment to treat people with different eye problems.

Surveys on eye health have taken place in the towns of Agramonte, Australia, Torriente and Jaguey Grande itself as well as the rural area of Cienaga de Zapata.

Dr. Ines Maria Morales said that in the coming days the first 94 patients from Cienaga de Zapata, of the 302 cases detected of people with vision problems, would receive operations.

The idea is to provide ophthalmologic services close to home. Previously such treatment meant traveling to a hospital in the city of Matanzas.

Lage noted the far reaching ideas of Fidel Castro on extending health services, which he called profoundly revolutionary and of solidarity.

"This is a very good gesture by the Revolution," said a 67-year-old Cienaga de Zapata resident, who was being treated at the teaching hospital.

Lage made his visit to the hospital accompanied by Communist Party political bureau member Yadira Garcia Vera, and Pedro Betancourt, first secretary of the Communist Party for Matanzas.

Source: By Ventura de Jesús, Granma