India sees 52% drop in corneal transplant during COVID-19 pandemic

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), approximately 15 million people in India are blind, out of the 45 million people across the world. Also, the National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB) estimates that every year around 25,000-30,000 new cases of corneal blindness occur in India. Blindness is a major health concern for India and its prevalence is further exacerbated by low availability of eye donors. In most cases, corneal blindness is curable with corneal transplantation.

Corneal transplant, a surgical procedure to replace part of your cornea with corneal tissue from a donor, has reduced by approximately 52% during COVID-19 pandemic. When the COVID-19 outbreak began last year in March 2020, corneal tissue retrieval was temporarily halted, putting corneal transplants on hold. According to EBAI (Eye Bank Association of India), the number of corneal transplants has reduced to 12,998 between April 2020 to March 2021, while 27,075 corneal transplants were conducted in the previous year.

India requires a minimum of two lakh eye donations annually, however, the present number stands at a meager 45,000. Supporting the National Eye Donation Fortnight which is observed from August 25 to September 8 every year, ENTOD Pharmaceuticals is organizing a series of activities across India to create about the importance of eye donation and to motivate people to donate their eyes after death.

ENTOD Pharmaceuticals, one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical companies in the Ophthalmic ENT segments across India and other countries has created an online website https://www.pledgemyeyes.org/in collaboration with the Eye Bank Association of India (EBAI). Through this website anyone can pledge their eyes and make a visually impaired person’s life brighter.

Nikkhil K Masurkar, Executive Director, ENTOD Pharmaceuticals, said, Eyes donated by a person can help restore vision in 2 corneal blind people. Lack of awareness and myths associated with eye donation prevents people from donating their eyes. Any person can donate their eyes irrespective of sex, age, religion or blood group. Therefore, on the occasion of the National Eye Donation Fortnight, they urge people to come forward and pledge their eyes.

“Out of 15 million blind people in India, 6.8 million have corneal blindness, with vision less than 6/60 in either of the eyes. Near about 1 million people are blind in both eyes, and this bilateral corneal blindness can be reversed. Eye donation usually takes place only after the person is deceased, and with the consent of the family, so it is important that not only the person pledging the eyes is aware of its importance but the entire family is educated about the needs to do the same too,” he said.