Eye Bank Coordination & Research Centre (EBCRC), a model community eye bank in Mumbai has launched a campaign to spread message in favour of eye donation and create awareness on the urgent need of corneas.
As a part of the drive initiated by EBCRC, the members will travel in the key areas across the city and inform people about the serious issue of corneal blindness. The drive will put more emphasis on educating people about the eye donation process and myths about eye donation.
“There are over a million corneally blind patients who are waiting to get a good quality viable cornea for transplant. To eradicate corneal blindness and provide vision to the corneal blind patients within a timeframe of say 10 to 15 years, we need to perform at least 75000 to 100000 transplants per year. As against this, the actual number of transplants performed in the whole country are in the range of 12000 to 15000 per annum. It is essential to bridge the gap for procurement of required number of good quality corneas for transplant”, said Jashwant B Mehta, Managing Trustee of EBCRC and Founder Member and Ex-President, Eye Bank Association of India.
EH News Bureau