Around 45 lakh people are suffering from corneal blindness in India and the number is increasing by 25,000 every year, DBCS District Project Manager Dr. V.V.L. Narasimha Rao said here Sunday.
Speaking at an awareness rally taken out on Beach Road on Sunday, marking the conclusion of the 34th Eye Donation Fortnight organised under the aegis of the District Blindness Control Society (DBCS), he said only 35,000 corneal transplants were being done at present and there was a need to increase it by at least four times to deal with the problem. The DBCS organised many educative programmes, awareness camps and debates for students since August 25.
‘Awareness needed’
Andhra Medical College principal Dr. P.V. Sudhakar and King George Hospital (KGH) Superintendent Dr. G. Arjuna flagged off the rally. Dr. Sudhakar stressed on the importance of eye donation, saying that an increased donation could check corneal blindness. The KGH Superintendent urged medicine students and general public to spread the importance of eye donation among the rural areas.
“The Central government has set a target of collecting 2.70 lakh corneas and perform at least 1 lakh transplants a year to eradicate corneal blindness by 2020. There are plans to launch 200 new eye banks and 2,000 eye collection centres,” Dr. Narasimha Rao said.
The awareness programmes during the fortnight were conducted by the DBCS, with Collector V. Vinay Chand as its Chairman and District Medical and Health Officer (DM&HO) Dr. S. Tirupati Rao as the Vice- Chairman.
RIMS Vice-Principal Dr. Tarakeswara Rao, Dr. C.V. Gopala Raju of Visakha Eye Hospital, Dr. Ravindra from SFEH, all faculty members of Government Regional Eye Hospital, staff of LVP Eye Institute, Vijayalakshmi Rajeswara Rao of Pushpagiri Eye Hospital, paramedical officers, eye donation counsellors, students of Andhra Medical College (AMC) and nursing colleges participated in the rally.