The Trinidad and To­ba­go Blind Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTB­WA) is urg­ing the Min­istry of Health to in­clude crit­i­cal sight-sav­ing med­ica­tions for glau­co­ma and di­a­bet­ic retinopa­thy on the Chron­ic Dis­ease As­sis­tance Pro­gramme (CDAP) drug list.

The call fol­lows Health Min­is­ter Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe’s re­cent an­nounce­ment that new med­ica­tions have been added to CDAP for con­di­tions such as heart dis­ease, hy­per­ten­sion, de­pres­sion, and high cho­les­terol, ef­fec­tive Oc­to­ber 1, 2025. While wel­com­ing the move, the TTB­WA said sim­i­lar at­ten­tion should be giv­en to drugs that can pre­vent avoid­able blind­ness.

The Na­tion­al Eye Sur­vey of Trinidad and To­ba­go (2013–2014) iden­ti­fied glau­co­ma, cataract, and di­a­bet­ic retinopa­thy (DR) as the main caus­es of pre­ventable blind­ness in the coun­try. How­ev­er, the As­so­ci­a­tion said many pa­tients are un­able to ac­cess es­sen­tial treat­ments con­sis­tent­ly.

In cas­es of glau­co­ma, it said the first-line treat­ment us­ing prostaglandin ana­logue eye drops is of­ten un­avail­able at pub­lic hos­pi­tal phar­ma­cies be­cause of stock-outs, forc­ing pa­tients to pur­chase them pri­vate­ly at high cost.

The As­so­ci­a­tion said those who can­not af­ford the med­ica­tion face the risk of ir­re­versible blind­ness.