How Orbis has responded to COVID-19

We stand in solidarity with our global health colleagues around the world, and applaud the frontline health workers who are working around the clock, including some of our dedicated volunteer faculty members. Like so many of our partners in the global eye health community, we at Orbis are facing some significant challenges during this unprecedented time. Amid all, we are keeping our sights on our number-one priority: ensuring the health and safety of our staff, volunteers, partners, and the people we treat and train. 

While many of our planned activities around the world have understandably been delayed, we continue to support our fantastic partner hospitals as they provide emergency eye care services. As a training organization, a large part of our work over the years has been teaching thousands of dedicated nurses, anesthesiologists and hospital staff in low- and middle-income countries about safe surgery and infection control within their hospitals and clinics. Many of these skills developed by local medical teams are now also proving useful in the fight against COVID-19. In just one example, a volunteer doctor for Orbis has told us that many of the anesthesiologists he trained will be working in intensive care units around the world to support treating COVID-19 patients. 

Our commitment to our mission is unwavering as we look for ways to continue our work in the prevention and treatment of avoidable blindness in a safe and socially responsible way. A staff nurse on our Flying Eye Hospital has recently coauthored an article on the role of nursing infection control in hospital settings during COVID-19 that will soon be published in a peer-reviewed medical journal. We are also seeing a record-breaking number of eye care professionals turning to our telemedicine platform, Cybersight, to access remote teaching and mentoring. We are proud to play a part in keeping eye care professionals connected and learning through these uncertain times.