How India Reduced the Cost of Cataract Lenses and Restored Millions of Eyesight
In the 1970s, India was facing a silent epidemic of cataract blindness. Millions of elderly people were losing their eyesight, not because treatment was unavailable, but because it was unaffordable. Cataract surgery required replacing the cloudy natural lens with a clear artificial intraocular lens (IOL). At that time, these lenses were imported and cost nearly 100 US dollars each, far beyond the reach of poor patients.
At the center of the solution was a remarkable man, Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy, lovingly known as Dr. V.
