After a break of 6 months on maternity leave and 4 further months due to the unrest in Kenya following the elections earlier this year, Dr Mathenge has now resumed fieldwork. She is conducting research into blindness in the over 50s, intending to develop better ways of preventing blindness in this patient group.

Dr Mathenge writes:

'I have so far examined close to 2500 individuals as part of the survey and am just past the half way mark. On my second week in the field I came across a woman who was totally blind and was making a lot of noise and getting violent in the queue. She was accompanied by her very embarrassed husband. I asked that they be brought in quickly for examination. The man was completely fine. He explained that his wife was recently diagnosed with diabetes and had gone into coma. She was in hospital for 2 weeks. She recovered, but to their horror she 'woke up' blind. Since then she had gone completely psychotic. He was in a dilemma and had decided to use the little money he had to buy her diabetic medication as diabetes had almost killed her, rather than seek help for her eye condition. On examination she had dense cataracts in both eyes. I sent her to the hospital immediately for surgery. The next morning I passed by the eye ward to see her. A beaming husband met me at the door and said,'It is wonderful. My wife is back!' There she was completely back to normal mentally, singing softly. The husband thanked me several times for helping his wife. He asked me to repeat my name. This puzzled me at first - until I realised he was confused as to how I could have helped him when we he and I came from the 2 different tribes that had just recently engaged in bitter conflict in our country!

The survey continues and is projected to be completed by the end of October 2008.'

In February 2008 BCPB awarded our first Barrie Jones Fellowship, for research into trachoma, by Victor Hu and colleagues at the International Centre for Eye Health, London.

Some £175,000 of funding will be provided by BCPB for this project.

Trachoma is the second most common cause of blindness after cataract, being responsible for around 15% of global blindness, and about 6 million people worldwide are currently blind from this disease. It is concentrated in low income countries with a hot and dusty climate. Trachoma triggers a poorly understood inflammatory response, which leads to conjunctival scarring, and eventually blindness in many cases. It is unknown whether current control measures, including antibiotic treatment, will halt this process as scarring takes many years to develop. This research project will strengthen our understanding of trachoma, improve the assessment of current methods of prevention, and may lead to new and better trachoma control strategies.

Victor Hu, the researcher, will be will be based at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre, Moshi, Tanzania and supervised there by Dr Matthew Burton, of the International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). ICEH is a world leading organisation in ophthalmic research in low income countries.

The project will link with a larger trachoma research programme in Tanzania and Ethiopia funded by Wellcome Trust.

The broadcaster John Sergeant will present a Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the BCPB. The appeal will go out on Sunday 27th January at 7.55 a.m and is repeated later the same day at 21.26 p.m.