Clerf Reports

"Vision for the Future: President Bill Manthey’s 2025 CLERF Address

I want to start by thanking Sia Dowlatshahi for his work and leadership over the past 2 years.

I’m looking forward to the new year. There are a few things I wanted to mention as part of my plans for the new year.

First, I want to finish the work that Keith Lemire and I have worked on with the long-term planning committee to improve our grant procedures.  We’ll work with Kathy Randall on that.

With LEHP, the Lions Eye Health program, I want to work to grow our adult eye screening.  With regard to the Kidsight program we need to push to grow  it.  I look at this as one of the best things we do. An example is the screenings we did in my district this year.  Lions screened 45,000 kids with a referral rate of 22%.  Compared to the Snellen average referral rate of 2% means 20% or 9000 more kids were referred to doctors for problems.  We change children’s lives. It is my intention to ask all clubs in the State to have a Kidsight/CLERF position on their board who can report on eye screenings in their area whether they do them or not so we can have complete knowledge of where we can grow our program.

My other target is communication.  While we state every Connecticut Lion is a member of CLERF I don’t think half of them know what we do.  It’s my intention to do short bi-monthly newsletters to the CLUB officers throughout the State to inform them of the grant research we support and our progress with Kidsight. I’m hoping that increasing their knowledge will increase their support both financially and through growing their participation.

The final part of my communication goal is to have an interchange with our board and committee members throughout the year. I feel as though most of our discussions are at meetings. It is my intention to talk to our board and committee members to get your ideas and thoughts on what we could be doing.  I think that getting people’s ideas will create a synergy that will improve us and create a team spirit.

I’m looking forward to a successful year with all of your help.

Bill Manthey

Connecticut Lions Eye Research Foundation

President

Updates on our Grants

The Yale project for Rapid identification of microorganisms in corneal ulcers. As Dr. Bakhoum announced at our annual meeting they have succeeded in their goal.

“We have successfully developed and validated a rapid, non-invasive method to diagnose corneal ulcers (infections) by identifying the causative microorganisms directly from a patient’s tears, thereby eliminating the need for a surgical blade to scrape the cornea. Corneal ulcers present a global vision health challenge, contributing to an estimated 1.5 to 2 million cases of unilateral blindness each year. In the United States alone, approximately 91,000 individuals suffer from corneal ulcers annually. When diagnosis is delayed or inaccurate, these infections can lead to corneal scarring and even permanent vision loss. Instead of waiting days for culture results and using invasive procedures, our approach harnesses cutting-edge technology, mainly digital droplet PCR and portable sequencing, to identify bacterial pathogens within just a few hours. From a single microliter of tears, this method empowers clinicians to initiate the most effective, targeted antimicrobial therapy immediately, minimizing reliance on broad-spectrum treatments and avoiding unnecessary side effects. By providing a safer, faster, and more accurate diagnostic tool, we aim not only to improve patient care but also to make accessible and precise eye infection diagnostics available worldwide, ultimately protecting vision and enhancing the quality of life for millions of patients.”