WVU/CVRP Participate in San Blas Island Project

WVU/CVRP participated in a project in the San Blas islands recently.  This program was sponsored by L’Oreal Company fight against skin cancer on an island with the highest rate of Albinism.  They contacted the CVRP program to address the needs of population with low vision.

The program focused on the Kuna Indians which are a small indigenous population in Central America, which independently owns the province of Kuna Yala that spans some 400 miniature San Blas Islands off the east Panama coast. Their island population of about 30,000 resides in compact quarters, inhabiting only a few (39) of those islands because they value family and a tightly knit community over independent personal spread. The Kuna Indians have the world's highest rate of oculocutaneous albinism (specifically OCA2), with an estimated frequency of 1:160.

To view a video of the trip to the San Blas Island, click here.  The program lasts thirty minutes but the segment on vision and CVRP starts at minute twenty one.