Health

For Children in Rural Mozambique, the Future Comes Into Focus

Published

1 year ago

January 28, 2025

For Children in Rural Mozambique, the Future Comes Into Focus

Over the past year, Muanema Fakira noticed something odd about the eyes of her 1-year-old daughter Sumaya. Her left eye was cloudy. It did not gleam with curiosity or glint in the sun. When the problem persisted, Ms. Fakira made the rounds to health clinics in their town in central Mozambique. Doctors said they could not help.

But they knew of someone who could, if Ms. Fakira could take Sumaya, now 2, on a 100-mile journey to the coast.

The family made the trip to the city of Quelimane, where Dr. Isaac Vasco da Gama examined Sumaya’s eyes and quickly diagnosed a congenital cataract.

Ms. Fakira was skeptical — cataracts are for old people, she said. But Dr. da Gama explained that an infection at birth, or shortly after, can cause cataracts in children. The condition is particularly worrying because vision problems affect the development of a child’s physical function. But the good news, he said, was that the problem can be solved with a simple surgery, one he does a dozen times a week at Quelimane Central Hospital.

This was particularly lucky for Sumaya because Dr. da Gama is one of just three pediatric ophthalmologists in Mozambique, a country of 30 million people.

Sumaya had her surgery in November, and a day later headed home, already recovering. Dr. da Gama was pleased to have seen her while she was still young, before permanent damage was done.

It was a sign that a system he and colleagues have been trying to put in place for the last few years might be taking hold: Sumaya’s parents sought help from the medical system for an eye problem — rather than a traditional healer, or a sorcerer to remove a curse.

When Sumaya was referred for care, it was a long and expensive trip, but she got help relatively quickly for a problem that might otherwise have blighted her life. Ideally her cataract would have been spotted at birth by a midwife.

“I do believe that by pushing forward, we can slowly overcome this challenge,” Dr. da Gama said.

In Mozambique, as in much of sub-Saharan Africa, awareness of vision problems is so low, and access to help so limited, that few children get the care they need, even though many suffer from easily treatable problems.

In 2021, a global commission on eye health reported that 510 million people around the world, 90 percent of them in low- and middle-income countries, had uncorrected vision impairment. That is, they could not see properly because they did not have glasses.

The consequences are enormous: Children with vision loss in these countries are significantly less likely to be in school. One study found that for those who do attend school, those with uncorrected vision problems learn half as much as their peers with normal vision.

Access to treatment is so limited because of a scarcity of trained staff and a failure to integrate vision care into health systems. Children are not screened for vision loss, and parents and teachers don’t understand the simple causes of eye trouble that can manifest in distraction, lack of physical coordination and behavior issues.

Mozambique has just 20 ophthalmologists, up from six two decades ago. Almost all of them are based in the capital, Maputo, in the south.

Dr. da Gama completed his studies in India in 2017 and set up a clinic in Quelimane, a seaport town halfway up Mozambique’s long Indian Ocean coastline. But to his surprise, he saw very few patients in the first year. He discovered that no one was being referred to him because health workers did not recognize treatable eye diseases. He started traveling to local clinics to tell medical workers about screening and solutions.

Then he teamed up with the charity Light for the World, which had sponsored him to complete specialized training in pediatric eye care in Tanzania. They designed an outreach program to show teachers, community health workers, traditional healers and local leaders how to spot vision problems and to refer children to the new ophthalmology ward at the Quelimane hospital.

Now, a couple of times a year, for up to a month at a time, he takes a mobile clinic to small communities to do surgeries on children with cataracts, glaucoma or strabismus (misaligned eyes).

Cataracts cause nearly half the preventable blindness in Mozambique’s children; they can be genetic, or the result of trauma (like a stick or a stone in the eye), or of an untreated eye infection.

On his outreach journeys, Dr. da Gama teaches other health care workers how to perform the simple surgeries, and how to spot the conditions. “Operating per se is not a problem: We can train in a week, two weeks, how to operate on a cataract,” he said. “But it is how to identify the children who need the operations.”

Mozambique’s Ministry of Health is trying to build awareness of vision problems and refractive errors, for which a pair of glasses is a life-altering intervention.

Glasses or simple surgeries that keep children in school can change the future for their families, and for the country as a whole. “If you have children less educated or with fewer skills,” he said, “the future of the economy is affected.”

In Quelimane, Dr. da Gama also sees cases of retinoblastoma, a cancer of the retina. When patients come early enough, he can save their lives, if not their eyes.

Camilo Rosario brought his daughter Grace, 3, to his clinic in November, from their home in a village 300 kilometers (about 185 miles) away. She had a tumor protruding from her eye that caused her excruciating pain. Mr. Rosario said she had begun to complain about her eye just weeks before. He shifted anxiously from foot to foot while Dr. da Gama explained that he would operate quickly to remove the tumor, but that he feared the disease was already in her brain.

Grace soon recovered from the first surgery, clinging to her father with a bulky bandage around her head. But as Dr. da Gama had feared, she had come to him too late; she died in early January.

Aminata Kaba was screened alongside her classmates in high school last year — and was surprised to learn that she was myopic. After she got glasses, school became significantly easier, she said, and her grades soon improved. Now, she said, she will continue on in school, and she hopes to be a lawyer.

Screening older children is easy; coaxing cooperation out of the small ones is a much greater challenge, Dr. da Gama said. They rarely look where he needs them to for eye exams. The eyedrops, the equipment, even his white coat, all can be frightening. He said he smiles and sings to distract, removing the coat when required.

“I like difficult things,” he said.

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Health

Common nighttime noise exposure may trigger heart problems, study suggests

Published

3 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Common nighttime noise exposure may trigger heart problems, study suggests

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Living near heavy traffic could negatively impact your heart health.

A European study, published in the journal Environmental Research, found that exposure to nighttime road traffic noise is linked to changes in the blood, leading to worsened cholesterol and cardiovascular risks.

The researchers considered data from the U.K. Biobank, Rotterdam Study, and Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966, including more than 272,000 adults over the age of 30, according to a press release.

Nighttime road noise exposure was estimated at all participants’ homes based on national noise maps. Researchers also took blood samples to measure the participants’ metabolic biomarkers for disease, then mapped the link between nightly noise levels and existence of biomarkers.

Exposure to loud noise was associated with increased concentrations of cholesterol-related biomarkers. (iStock)

The study found that people exposed to louder noise at night — especially sounds above 55 decibels — showed changes in 48 different substances in their blood. Twenty of these associations “remained robust” throughout all cohorts.

Exposure to loud noise was associated with increased concentrations of cholesterol-related biomarkers, especially LDL “bad” cholesterol, IDL (intermediate-density lipoprotein) and unsaturated fatty acids.

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As noise levels increased, starting at around 50 decibels, cholesterol markers rose steadily, the release stated.

The authors concluded that this study “provides evidence that nighttime road traffic noise exposure from 50 dB upward is associated with alterations in blood cholesterol and lipid profiles in adults.”

Researchers noted a link between traffic noise and cardiometabolic disease. (iStock)

Study co-author Yiyan He, doctoral researcher at the University of Oulu in Finland, noted that in this type of research, small effect sizes are expected, and environmental exposures such as traffic noise are “typically modest.”

SIMPLE NIGHTLY HABIT LINKED TO HEALTHIER BLOOD PRESSURE, STUDY SUGGESTS

“Despite this, we observed statistically robust and consistent associations across many biomarkers, especially those related to LDL and IDL lipoproteins,” she told Fox News Digital.

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“We also identified a clear exposure-response pattern starting at around 50 dB, suggesting that metabolic changes become more evident as noise levels increase.”

This aligns with public health guidance, as the World Health Organization recommends lower nighttime noise limits at around 40 to 45 dB, Yiyan He added.

“This finding may clarify the association between traffic noise and cardiometabolic diseases,” the researchers wrote. (iStock)

“The 55 dB level is often used as an interim benchmark associated with substantial noise annoyance and sleep disturbance,” she said. “In our study, we observed associations not only at 55 dB, but also indications of effects emerging at around 50 dB.”

The strength and consistency of the cholesterol-related associations were surprising, as these changes are usually “subtle.”

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“Instead, we found consistent associations across multiple large European cohorts, which strengthens confidence that the findings may reflect real biological patterns,” Yiyan He went on. “We were also interested to see that effects were minimal below ~50 dB, suggesting a possible threshold-like pattern.”

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The researcher noted that these findings were consistent across genders, education levels and obesity status.

The study was restricted to White Europeans, which posed a limitation. There was also a lack of information on the fasting status in the UK Biobank.

Changes in cholesterol levels were more severe than researchers expected. (iStock)

“Fasting can influence levels of certain metabolites, particularly fatty acids,” Yiyan He said. “However, based on UK Biobank documentation, fewer than 10% of participants were fasting for at least eight hours, and our main findings focused on cholesterol-related biomarkers, which are generally less sensitive to short-term fasting.”

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The researchers also lacked information on bedroom location, indoor noise exposure and time spent at home.

“These factors may introduce non-differential exposure misclassification,” Yiyan He said. “Additionally, noise exposure estimates were based on participants’ temporary residential addresses at the time of blood sampling, without considering the duration of residence.”

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“Many of these limitations would tend to bias results toward the null, so the consistent associations we observed remain noteworthy.”

Experts recommend taking measures to limit traffic noise at night. (iStock)

Based on this latest research, Yiyan He noted that nighttime noise is a “health-relevant exposure,” not just “an annoyance.”

“Our findings suggest that nighttime traffic noise may subtly but consistently affect metabolic health,” she said. “While the changes in cholesterol and lipid levels for any one individual are small, traffic noise affects a very large number of people, which means the potential public health impact could be substantial.”

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The researcher recommends taking measures like improving sound insulation, using noise-reducing strategies and placing bedrooms on the quieter side of the home when possible.

“Because sleep is a key pathway linking noise to health, protecting the nighttime sleep environment is especially important,” she added.

Angelica Stabile is a lifestyle reporter for Fox News Digital.

Health

The Best Time To Drink Coffee for Weight Loss and a Faster Metabolism

Published

14 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

The Best Time To Drink Coffee for Weight Loss and a Faster Metabolism

The Best Time To Drink Coffee for Weight Loss and Fat Burn | Woman’s World

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