Fact Sheet for Eye Transplant in India

Ø  India – home to world’s largest blind population: 1, 20, 00, 000

–         Cataract:                          55%

–         Refractive Errors:               27%

–         Corneal Blindness:              18%

Ø  80% Of Them Are Fully Curable

–         Cataract:                          CURABLE

–         Refractive Errors:               CURABLE

–         Corneal Blindness:              CURABLE (Through Transplantation of Corneas from Eye Donation)

Ø  But poor Cornea Donation Rate in India:

–         91 Lac deaths annually in India

–         1 donor gives sight to 2 people

–         182 Lac Potential Donations

–         Only 38000 Made Every Year

–         At this rate it will take 112 Years to eradicate blindness

Ø  Hurdles:

–         Lack of awareness on key issues:

·         Curability of corneal blindness

·         Need for eye donation

·         Eye donation avenues and processes

·         Superstition in Donor’s family

–         Lack of infrastructure:

·         Cornea Retrieval

·         Cornea Storage & Processing

·         Cornea Transplantation

“Enlighten someone’s world by donating your eyes” - Ashok Mahindru

                                

Eye Donation - A dark reality

Our country has about 2.1 million people who suffer from Corneal Blindness. They can see if a Cornea transplant is performed. Only source of Corneas for transplant is eye donation, which must be performed with in about 6 hours of death.

Against this, average no. of eye donations in India languishes at about 38,600 per annum implying that even an impossible wait of 112 years will not help most. On the other hand approximately 9 million people die every year and one pair of eyes from a deceased person can be implanted on two blind persons implying a potential of 1 Cr. 80 Lac corneal transplants.

Major cause for this unfortunate situation is lack of awareness among our countrymen about eye donation, its need and life changing impact on entire families of cornea recipients who are able to see this beautiful world again. Therefore, there is an urgent need to raise awareness about eye donation.

“Enlighten someone’s world by donating your eyes” - Ashok Mahindru