No dearth of donors, but not enough eye bank
staff in India: Experts
Saturday September 22, 2012 07:50:03 PM,
IANS
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Kolkata: There's no
dearth of people willing to donate their eyes in India but more
transplants can't be conducted due to a shortage of eye bank
technicians and eye donation counsellors, experts say.
"India ranks high when it comes to people who pledge their eyes.
But not many corneal transplants are performed due to a shortage
of technicians and counsellors," said Tim Schottman, Chief Global
Officer, Sight Life USA (the world's largest eye bank association)
at the fourth Annual National Continuing Medicial Education
Conference on Eye Banking organised by the Eye Bank Association of
India (EBAI).
With around 1.1 million people afflicted with bilateral blindness
(loss of eyesight in both eyes) and around 5.6 million suffering
from lack of vision in one eye, corneal transplant has become a
necessity in India.
"The percentage of transplants or grafts has gone up from 10 to 40
percent. We are aiming to touch the global target of 60 percent,
said Samar K. Basak, vice president, EBAI.
In-order to achieve this target, eye banks all over India have
collaborated with Sight Life to train personnel.
"So far this training has already started in Chennai, Delhi, West
Bengal and few other places. Gradually we will cover all the major
cities," said Basak, who also serves as the medical director of
Prova Eye Bank, Disha Eye Hospitals & Research Centre near Kolkata,
the second-largest eye bank organisation in India.
India is placed in the top three countries with respect to eye
donation, but since the donation is done after the donor is dead,
there is need to ensure that families do not relent.
"At present there are 700 eye banks in India, out of which only
150 do transplants and out of that 150, only 25 meet the
standards," said Schottman.
A major hurdle that keeps these eye banks from meeting
international standards is the lack of accreditation.
"We have applied to the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals
and Healthcare Providers (NABH) to provide the accreditations and
we hope to achieve all our targets by 2020," said Basak.
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