(10 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso - 5 June 2025
1. Various of doctor Claudette Yaméogo examines Isaka Diallo's eye
++COVERED BY SHOT 1 ++
2. SOUNDBITE (French) Dr. Claudette Yaméogo, Pediatric Ophthalmologist:
“To work with children, you have to have patience. It’s the most important thing because children are hard to examine.”
++ COVERED BY SHOT 1 ++
3. SOUNDBITE (Dioula) Isaka Diallo, Eye exam patient:
“I go to school in Soumousso”.
4. SOUNDBITE (Dioula) Isaka Diallo, Eye exam patient:
“[My name is] ‘Isaka’. Some friends threw a stone at me.
5. People walking down alongside the University Hospital Sourou Sanou building
6. Exterior of the University Hospital Sourou Sanou
++ PARTIALLY COVERED BY SHOTS 5, 6, & 8 ++
7. SOUNDBITE (French) Dr Claudette Yaméogo, pediatric ophthalmologist:
“We have a population that don’t ask when they have pain, or when things are very bad, there is always the tendency to go for the traditional healer as a first step, and if that doesn’t work they will go see a doctor. So these are the factors that mean that we see kids a bit late.”
8. Various of eye exam patient Isaka Diallo with his father outside the hospital
9. Dr. Claudette Yaméogo peaking at desk
10. Various of Isaka Diallo and his father sitting at desk with Dr. Yaméogo
11. SOUNDBITE (French)Dr Claudette Yaméogo, pediatric ophthalmologist:
++ COVERED BY SHOTS 9 -10 ++
“I was trained here since primary school…up to now and this training was in view of providing some relief to the people of Burkina Faso"
STORYLINE:
This is Dr. Claudette Yaméogo at work.
It's painstaking, and tricky to treat the children here - especially when you are the only ophthalmologist who specializes in such treatment.
Isaka Diallo was playing with friends when a stone struck his left eye.
For two weeks, his parents searched hospitals in western Burkina Faso for an eye doctor. The village clinic only prescribed painkillers. Other health workers did not know what to do.
When they eventually found Dr.Yaméogo it was too late for Isaka. His injury had become too difficult to treat.
It is a common problem in the country of about 23 million people, which has just 70 ophthalmologists.
Yaméogo, who started her practice late last year, says the work is daunting and often requires her to visit — at no cost — families who cannot afford care or cannot make their way to the hospital where she works.
In Burkina Faso, an estimated 70% of the population lives in rural areas.
And yet ophthalmologists are concentrated in the capital, Ouagadougou, and other main cities, making them unreachable for many.
While more than 2,000 ophthalmology procedures were performed in Burkina Faso’s western Hauts-Bassins region in 2024, only 52 of those were carried out in its more rural areas, according to the Ministry of Health.
Most procedures were done in the area of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso’s second city.
At least 70% of the trauma... [truncated]
--
Support podtube.me continuity as a free service. Become a Patreon or make an one-time donation
--
Video at Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoYYR5zDe14