Nagpur News
As mandated by the National Program for Control of Blindness (NPCB), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, and the “Eye Bank Association of India (EBAI)”; Department of Ophthalmology, Government Medical College and Hospital will be organising 29th National Eye Donation Fortnight from August 25th to September 8th, 2014 at Department of Ophthalmology, GMCH.
The “Inauguration Ceremony” of the “29th National Eye Donation Fortnight celebration will start on August 24th in the presence of Dean, GMCH, Dr. Rajaram Powar, Medical Superintendent Dr. Jagdish Hedao, Prof and HOD, Dept of Department of Ophthalmology, GMCH, Dr. A. H. Madan, Dr. Dilip Kumar, Dr. Mona Deshmukh, Dr. Kavita Dhabarde, Dr. Jayshree Ekhar, Dr. Rahul Dagwar, Dr. Nilesh Gaddewar and Dr. Snehal Bonde Chauraia. All residents of Department of Ophthalmology, GMCH will also b present during the inaugural function.
Around 4.5 crore of the total world populace cannot see and one-third of them are in India. Annual need of corneal transplantation to remove the backlog is 2,50,000 in India, but only around 50,000 eye donations per year take place of which around 60% can be used for corneal transplantation. Total number of functional eye banks in India is 256 i.e. only 15 percent. Although the number is not so good but Maharashtra is the state having highest number of Functional Eye Bank in India. In Maharashtra there are only 51 functional Eye Banks of which 5 are in Nagpur informed Dr. AH Madan.
On the first day of the program, 25th August the Inauguration Ceremony of Eye Donation Fortnight and Eye Donation Awareness Poster Exhibition and video show in eye dept. GMCH Nagpur by Dean, GMCH Nagpur at 11 am. There will be inauguration of eye donation awareness rally at 11.30 am and afterwards eye donation awareness and eye diagnostic camp at old age home, Nagpur is been organized.
The number of Corneal Transplantation Surgeries in Maharashtra is 2330 between May 2013 to April 2014, number of Eye Donation in Nagpur between July 2013 to June 2014 is 519, number of corneal transplantation surgeries in Nagpur between May 2013 to June 2014 is 139, number of corneal transplantation surgeries in GMCH, Nagpur between May 2013 to June 2014 is 69 and number of people waiting for the corneal transplantation surgeries in Nagpur at present are approximately 650 with 25 % of these are children below 15 year of age, 300 male, 260 females and 90 children told Dr. Madan.
The lack of awareness about eye donation can be understood by the fact that around 75,00,000 deaths occur in India every year out of which approximately only 25000 people i.e. 0.3-0.4% of total deaths in India, actually donate their eyes thereby we collect only 50000 donated eyes. Every year around 15000 corneal transplantations take place in India. As per these stats it shows there is a lack of awareness about eye donation in India.
Maximum i.e. around 62.4% of blindness in the world is due to cataract which is successfully tackled by surgeries and this prevalence is decreasing over the years. Corneal blindness is one of the preventable & treatable causes of blindness worldwide accounting for around 25% of the total blindness in the world but it is still a neglected part due to multifactorial reasons. Corneal blindness accounts for around 1.5 crore blindness in the world with around 46 lakh cases in India and 35000 cases being added every year. On and above this, the sorry aspect about corneal blindness is that 25-27% of this blindness belongs to children. Prevalence of Corneal blindness is increasing every year due to various causes of corneal blindness like Vitamin A deficiency, injuries (chemical , accidents, occupational), Infections, congenital causes, rarely after cataract surgeries.
The awareness programs
On the occasion of Eye Donation Fortnight on “29th National Eye Donation Fortnight many events have been planned. On 26th August there will be an Eye Donation Awareness and Eye Diagnostic Camp at Ramna Maroti, Nagpur, on 27th August Eye Donation Awareness and Eye Diagnostic Camp at Dhantoli, Nagpur, on 28th August Eye Diagnostic Camp at Mental Challenged School, on 31st August Eye Donation Awareness and Eye Diagnostic Camp at Ratan Nagar, and Chitanwis Sahkari Bank, Mahal, Nagpur, on 1st September Eye Donation Awareness and Eye Diagnostic Camp at Ekta Mandir Satranjipura, Nagpur, on 5th August, Eye Donation Awareness and Eye Diagnostic Camp at Nandanwan Coloni, Nagpur, on 6th August Eye Donation Awareness and Eye Diagnostic Camp at New Subhedar Nagar, Near Basaveshwar Putla, Nagpur and Eye Donation Awareness and Eye Diagnostic Camp at Forest Coloni, Seminari Hills, Nagpur is been organized.
