Home Bright Sparcs
Biographical entry

Home | Browse | Search | Previous | Next
Be a Bright Sparcs Supporter

Hollows, Frederick Cossum (Fred) (1929 - 1993)

AC, FRCS
Published Sources
Ophthalmologist
Born: 9 April 1929  New Zealand.  Died: 10 february 1993  New South Wales, Australia.
Frederick Cossum Hollows (Fred) worked as a clinician in New Zealand for several years before specializing in ophthalmology. He moved to Australia in 1965 when appointed Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of New South Wales. Throughout his career Fred Hollows was heavily involved in improving the health of Australia’s indigenous and rural people. He helped establish the Aboriginal Medical Service and The National Trachoma and Eye Health Program. Hollows was also instrumental in reducing the cost of eye care in developing countries by setting up intraocular lens factories in Nepal and Eritrea. The Fred Hollows Foundation continues to support these and other projects.

Career Highlights
URL: The home page for this entity is located at http://www.hollows.org/content/TextOnly.aspx?s=44
After completing a Bachelor of Arts, Fred Hollows turned his attentions to the priesthood. He took up ecclesiastical studies in 1950, but after one year decided to withdraw. The next year Hollows began a medical degree in Dunedin, New Zealand and in 1961 specialized in ophthalmology. In 1965 he was appointed Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of New South Wales. During his tenure at the University he became aware of the impact of trachoma (eye disease, leading to blindness, caused by Chlamydia trachomatis) on Australia’s rural and Aboriginal populations. Because Australia is the only developed country in the world where this disease still exists, Hollows fought hard to establish a national treatment program. In 1975 the Federal Government and Australian College of Ophthalmologists set up the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program and appointed Hollows as its Chairman. Over a three year period this program screened 100, 000 Australians.

In 1985 Fred Hollows was awarded the Order of Australia but refused to accept it in protest to the poor state of Aboriginal Health. Hollows was also a consultant for the World Health organization and visited many third world countries. He recognised that most blindness disorders in these countries were due to the lack of basic medical treatment, and therefore preventable. Cataracts were the commonest problem in these countries. But the high price of surgery and replacement lenses (the intraocular lens) meant treatment was not an option for most people. Hollows raised money to establish Intraocular lens factories in Nepal and Eritrea to dramatically reduce this cost ( by around 70%). In 1992 he established The Fred Hollows Foundation which continues to support expansion of these and other projects. Fred Hollows died of cancer in Sydney on 10 February 1993.

Chronology
1985?Consultant to the World Health Organization
1946 - 1949Bachelor of Arts (BA) completed at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealnd
1950Ecclesiastical studies at the Glenleith Bible College in Dunedin, New Zealand
1951 - 1955Bachelor of Medicine (MB) completed at the University of Otago in Dunedin
1955 - 1956Medical Intern at the Wellington Hospital
1957 - 1960House Surgeon at Auckland Hospital
1961Opthamology studies at Moorfields in the UK
1961 - 1964Opthalmic Registrar in Cardiff, Wales
1965 - Associated Professor of Opthalmology at the University of New South Wales
1970Treatment of indigenous patients in Bourke, NSW
1971First Aboriginal medical centre in Redfern, NSW
1973Worked in South Australia
1975Director of the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program (NTEHP)
1981Resigned from NTEHP
1985Visited Nepal, Burma, Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh
1987Visited Eritrea
1989Naturalised
1990 - 1991Visited Eritrea twice, Nepal and Vietnam
1992Chair of the Division of Opthamology at the University of New South Wales, Prince of Wales and Prince Henry Teaching Hospitals
1992The Fred Hollows Foundation established in Australia
1994Intraocular lens laboratories established by the Foundation in Eritrea and Nepal

 

Google
Structure based on ISAAR(CPF) - click here for an explanation of the fields.Prepared by: Annette Alafaci
Created: 6 January 2005
Modified: 29 January 2007

Published by The University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre on ASAPWeb, 1994 - 2007
Originally published 1994-1999 by Australian Science Archives Project, 1999-2006 by the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre
Disclaimer, Copyright and Privacy Policy
Submit any comments, questions, corrections and additions
Prepared by: Acknowledgements
Updated: 26 February 2007
http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P004572b.htm

[ Top of page | Bright Sparcs Home | Browse | Search ]