A dire need for the blind

Corneal blindness is a major form of visual deprivation in Bangladesh. There are about 100,000 corneal blind people in this country. A high percentage of these individuals could be visually rehabilitated by corneal transplantation — a procedure that has very high rate of success among organ transplants.
With this view we should move forward to strengthen eye banking capacity. The requirement of corneae in Bangladesh is approximately five lakhs. But the number of eyes being procured annually is only about 450-500 and these are not fully utilised. This clearly indicates a gap between the supply and demand of corneae in the country.
Sandhani International Eye Bank is the only active eye bank in our country. Corneal tissue collection by Sandhani has increased remarkably during the last two years. But it alone cannot meet up the country's requirement for cornea.
Sandhani International Eye Bank adopted the standard eye banking systems in collaboration with ORBIS International which remarkably increased the number of corneas through the Hospital Cornea Retrieval Programme (HCRP). However, to meet the country's demand and increase the number of cornea collection, more eye banks are the need of time.
Eye banking procedure needs co-operation from both public and banking authority. Both way communications make the procedure smoother.
As soon as a death occurs at a house, family members can call up the eye bank informing the demise and their willingness to donate eyes.
Quality control and distribution are key to proper utilisation of any cornea. Not only during the enucleation process (surgical removal of the whole eyeball) but even more after the eyes are brought to the eye bank for processing.
Corneal tissues may be distributed to ophthalmic institutions, corneal surgeons and other eye banks. The packing and transportation should be emphasised.
Sandhani International Eye Bank has been distributing corneae at different hospitals according to the cornea distribution guideline.
With the increasing demand of cornea and their limited supply, it is imperative that the corneae received must be utilised to the maximum.
The writer is the Joint Secretary General of Sandhani National Eye Donation Society.