Free eye checks will be offered in five towns in Burgas region from 26 to 30 October, in a mobile clinic run by the "Check Your Eyes in Time" campaign. No booking is needed, the organisers said. The images are analysed by artificial intelligence software.

The check is for people aged 50 and over and for people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, who face a higher risk of eye complications.

The clinic will be open every day from 10:00 to 16:00 in central, easy-to-reach places. The first stop is Karnobat on 26 October, at 1 Aleksi Neychev Street, next to the chitalishte (community cultural centre). On 27 October it will be in Aytos, on Svoboda Square. On 28 October it will be in Nessebar, at 1 Zhulieta Shishmanova Square, in front of the Artium Centre for Culture and Education.

On 29 October the clinic will be in Primorsko, at 56 Treti Mart Street. The last stop is Tsarevo on 30 October, at 36 Khan Asparuh Street, in the staff car park in front of the Tsarevo municipality building.

The test takes a few minutes. A special camera photographs the back of the eye without touching it and without dilating the pupils, and artificial intelligence analyses the images straight away. Before the test, each person signs an informed consent form and fills in a short questionnaire about their health.

The organisers say this is not a routine check-up and does not give a diagnosis. The screening is meant to show quickly whether there are certain changes in the retina, so that a person can be referred to a specialist if needed. If it finds anything unusual, an eye doctor will discuss the result on the spot and explain the next steps.

The test looks for changes linked to four eye diseases with a major impact on society: glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration, in its dry and wet forms.

Prof Dr Aleksandar Oskar, chair of the Bulgarian Society of Paediatric Ophthalmology, Neuro-ophthalmology and Ophthalmogenetics, said: "The socially significant diseases targeted by this screening cause 90% of vision loss." He said people too often see a doctor only at an advanced stage, when the damage is already serious, and some diseases cannot wait.

The World Health Organisation says at least 2.2bn people worldwide have a vision impairment, and in nearly 1bn of them it could have been prevented.

Mira Ganova, executive director of the Bulgarian Cluster for Digital Solutions and Innovation in Healthcare, which organises the campaign, said: "This innovative eye screening is being held in Bulgaria for the first time." She said the aim is to make specialist medical care available also where it is harder to reach.

The campaign urges people to pay attention to their eyesight in good time, to learn the risk factors and to get used to regular check-ups. The organisers also appeal to the relatives of people at risk, because vision loss often comes on gradually and at first has no clear symptoms.

The partners are the Bulgarian Society of Paediatric Ophthalmology, Neuro-ophthalmology and Ophthalmogenetics and the Bulgarian Association of Pharmacoeconomics. The campaign is backed by the Ministry of Health and by Roche Bulgaria, and local municipalities are helping to hold it in each town.

Burgas region is the fourth of six regions on the clinic's route. By 13 November it will visit 29 small towns and villages. The exact locations and more information are at www.vijochite.bg.