What a privilege it was to physically meet with and to interact with Dr. Gladys Atto, the only eye doctor that Karamoja Sub-Region in North-Eastern Uganda has ever had. She is, in fact, the only such doctor, ophthalmologist, currently deployed in Karamoja.

“Dr. Atto is one of just 45 eye specialists in Uganda, a country of more than 48 million; it is less than a quarter of the ratio of ophthalmologists to population that the World Health Organization recommends.”

The Guardian

Karamoja hosts 2.8% of Uganda’s population, over 1.1 million people and so, according to World Health Organisation recommended ratios, Dr. Atto has been allocated to serve a population that should be served by a minimum of four eye doctors.

Not only is she dealing with a huge numeric challenge, Dr. Atto is also dealing with a population in which many among them hold questionable beliefs about medicine and medical practice. Case in point, for example, these two incidences:

“We gave the patient eye drops, but he went back home and instead used penicillin powder. That he thought it would work faster. Today he came back with a perforated cornea”

“I referred a patient to Mengo for review by a retina specialist. One week later, patient calls: “I’m calling to inform you that I didn’t go to Mengo.” I asked: why? Patient answered: “Doctors from GNLD scanned my head with their machine and said my brain lacks water. They advised me to take 60 litres of water per day and my eyes will get better.”

Dr. Atto on X

Nevertheless, Dr. Atto is an extra ordinary and trail blazing millennial who is breaking proverbial glass ceilings and cultural barriers.

“My theatre team is all female, but yesterday to our dismay, one male patient kept insisting that no female should touch him. He kept saying: “I don’t want childish female hands to touch me”. Guy relented when he realized the surgeon is also female.”

Dr. Atto on X

Her work ethic and accomplishments in public eye care services provision at the grassroots, including over 7,000 eye surgeries that she has performed in Karamoja, have earned her due respect and recognition. She is the recipient of the prestigious Uganda Medical Association’s Women in Medicine Award 2021.

An alumna of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine She is a rare jewel, a civil servant, stationed at Moroto Regional Referral Hospital, who goes the extra mile to regularly do outreaches throughout Karamoja. And in doing so, she is ensuring that many in far and difficult to reach places in Karamoja benefit from her expertise.

She has revolutionized public eye care services provision by reversing the norm of patients seeking services to the health care professional seeking out the patient. She goes out to the people to seek out her patients; educate and convince them of importance of eye care; provides them with appropriate services that they need; and even takes the time to do follow-up visits with them in their homes.

“See this woman, I found smoothening her grinding stone. She couldn’t do this before cataract surgery,” Dr. Atto on X.

It was worth my investment in self of 100,00 shillings to be in the audience of TEDx Entebbe on Friday, 20th October. I learnt a lot listening to Dr. Atto’s talk. Enlightening us that it is possible to reach universal healthcare services provision in Uganda, Dr. Atto educated us on what each of us can easily do.

For example, she is emphasizing provision of cataract healthcare services, because cataract is the leading cause of blindness globally. In 2021, for example, researchers estimated that at the time 42,000 Ugandans had cataract blindness. Cataract blindness, moreover, is avoidable if diagnosed early and surgery done, We learnt from Dr. Atto.

A major reason to why thousands of Ugandans end up with cataract blindness is due to insufficient awareness among Ugandans of the importance of regularly getting medical eye check-ups. So please heed Dr, Atto’s advice and make it a point to encourage everyone within your networks of family, friends and colleagues to regularly seek medical eye care services, even when they feel their eyes are fine.

Dr. Atto and team conducting a surgical camp in Moroto @ Dr. Atto on X

You can go even a step further by advocating for and supporting eye care outreach services and surgical camps. Cataract surgery costs about 600,000 shillings (USD 150).

Featured image @ Dr. Atto with her Theater Team.