KURNOOL: The Regional Eye Hospital will soon undertake corneal transplant surgeries, said hospital Superintendent D. Giddaiah.

Talking to reporters here on Friday along with P. Sudhakar Rao, secretary of District Blindness Control Society, Dr. Giddaiah said two surgeons of the hospital - Dr. Bharani Kumar Reddy and Dr. Revathi - were recently trained in eye transplant. If every thing went well, the hospital will carry out the first transplant in three to six months.

The hospital will secure processed eye balls from the eye bank of L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad.

Dr. Giddaiah said that in order to promote eye donation, the hospital is planning to start corneal retrieval programme at wards in the General Hospital where the death rate is high. In this regard, volunteers will convince the relatives of the dead persons to donate eyes.

Eye donation week

Dr. Rao said 21st eye donation week was being observed between August 25 and September 8. Besides awareness programmes, eye camps will be held at Mantralayam, Jaladurgam, Nandikotkur and Leprosy Colony in the city.

He said eye donations were poor in the country with just 25,000 donations every year while 15 lakh people suffered from corneal blindness. Efforts are being made to increase the donations to one lakh eyes, he said.

In Kurnool district, 20 eyes were donated last year while it had been only 10 a few years ago. The Regional Hospital was given Rs. 1 lakh for improvement to eye collection process. This year, the center plans to collect 100 eyes.

Donations

He said in all 15 lakh persons will be blessed with vision if there were enough donations. Most of the patients lost the vision due to injury to the eye, road accidents, infections and vitamin A deficiency.

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