Iridex Helps Honduran Patients Receive Retinal Care

Honduras faces the highest level of economic inequality in all of Latin America, with 66% of the nation’s 8 million residents living in poverty. As a result, many Hondurans cannot afford basic eye care and unnecessarily blindness is frequent. Through our Iridex Cares program, we recently partnered with the Wake Forest Baptist Eye Center to aid in a mission trip to the Lions Eye Hospital in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Physicians and staff from Wake Forest worked together with clinicians in Honduras to perform vital procedures on over 200 patients.

Iridex provided an OcuLight® GL Laser and an LIO Premiere® so that Dr. Rajiv Shah could treat diabetic retinopathy, retinal vein occlusions and retinal tear/detachment. “I extend my deepest gratitude from the Wake Forest Baptist Eye Center and the Lions Eye Hospital in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Through your generosity, we were able to help many individuals of an impoverished nation of Honduras. In particular the clinic is without a working laser to treat diabetic retinopathy, retinal vein occlusions, and retinal tears/detachments. I was able to perform 22 retinal lasers for patients who would otherwise been without any form of care and would have been blinded by their disease,” said Dr. Shah.

There are only two retina specialists in the entire country of Honduras, neither of which are located in San Pedro Sula. We are pleased to help Dr. Shah in his efforts to build a retina clinic in Honduras and enable needed services for underserved populations.