PUNE: In India, approximately 30,000 people are diagnosed to be cornea blind every year. Eye experts from the city note that if even 1.5 per cent of people in the country pledge their eyes, it would take care of the new cases every year. The National Eye Donation Fortnight is being observed from August 25 to September 8. Hence, experts are pushing for more awareness of eye donation.
Director, Eye Bank, HV Desai Eye Hospital and Cornea Specialist Dr Shilpa Joshi said that the major causes for blindness or visual impairment in our country are infections, trauma, post-cataract surgery, Vitamin A deficiency, malnutrition, trachoma and congenital eye diseases amongst others.
“Eye donation can be of great help in cases like post-trauma or post infections corneal scars and some of the post-surgery cases, which can show good results after corneal grafting surgery,” said Dr Joshi.
She further added that the number of new people diagnosed with corneal blindness due to above-mentioned ailments is worrisome. We need to bridge the gap. “The need of the hour is, therefore, to increase awareness about eye donation. It should be a combined effort by the medical fraternity, community and social workers. There are lots of myths and misconceptions related to eye donation, which need to be cleared by awareness campaigns. There is also a need to focus on ‘Hospital Cornea Retrieval Programme (HCRP)’ to obtain younger and healthier corneas for transplants,” said Dr Joshi.
HV Desai Eye Hospital CEO Dr Rajesh Kapse added that while on one hand awareness is the key, on the other, it is very important not to let corneal donations go to waste. “Cornea can be preserved for 6 to 14 days. State-of-the-art eye banks, availability of trained eye surgeons and trained eye bank professionals are the need of the hour.”
