SHIMOGA: Secretary of the Eye Bank Association of India, Hyderabad, Madhukar Reddy said here on Sunday that the Union Government had not responded to the representations made by the association to amend the Human Organs Transplantation Act, making separate provision for eye donation and its transplantation, as they required special care and treatment.

Addressing newspersons, he said: "Every time we make the representation to the Centre, there is a new Union Health Minister, to whom we have make the representation afresh."

Dr. Reddy said the number of the cornea donors had been increasing in response to the campaign launched by the Eye Bank Association of India in association with the religious institutions and organisations such as the Rotary Club and the Lions Club.

He said that the campaign highlighted the causes for the corneal problems and preventive and curative measures to be taken to avoid blindness arising out of the corneal problems.

Stating that nearly 30 lakh people suffered from corneal blindness in India, with the problem being pronounced more in rural areas owing to lack of awareness, he said there was a need for at least 60 lakh corneas every year to clear the backlog as nearly 50 per cent of the donated corneas would have lost their utility value by the time they were removed.

He said that about 10 years ago, the waiting list to clear the backlog of donated corneas used to be more than a year. It had been reduced to 15 days to one month.

Dr. Reddy said though there were over 200 eye banks all over India, only 12 of them were treated as the world class eye banks in appreciation of the quality of their service. Many of them were located in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai and Delhi.

He said there was a need for technically qualified personnel to handle retrieval of cornea, particularly in the rural areas where people were forthcoming to register their names to donate the cornea.

Dr. Reddy said there should be proper storage facilities to keep the retrieved corneas, as they had to be used in the corneal blind within six hours after they were removed.

He said that with new technology, the corneas could be stored for four days.

Dr. Reddy suggested that the State Government take interest in the eye donation campaign, as health was a State subject.

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