Refugees suffer higher rates of sight impairment than the general population, according to a new study, while a pro bono service has been launched to restore their 20/20 vision. or signup to continue reading Shirin Hosini, who left Afghanistan due to persecution and sought asylum in Iran and Turkey before being resettled in Australia last year, was going blind because of cataracts. Under the steady hands of opthamologist Dr Hessom Razavi and the team, she was able to travel from Sydney to Perth for desperately needed surgery, which restored her vision.
Iranian-born Dr Razavi is keenly attuned to the struggles of refugees and how eye health often falls by the wayside as other priorities in a new country take over such as finding a house and a job. Dr Razavi was forced to escape the hardline regime himself at a young age because his family members were being jailed. "If you're trying to get from A to B, going from danger to safety, you're not going to have a choice but to carry on and address your first priority, which might be surviving in a transit country," he told AAP.
"Mrs Hosini's family had only just arrived and they were apprehensive and trepidatious about surgery but when I spoke to her son in Farsi, within minutes you could tell he was relaxed and they were happy to come to WA." Dr Razavi is the co-author of a study published this month in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public health that found newly arrived refugees have high rates of visual .