Kathmandu, October 24:

People with curable blindness are being deprived of their right to sight — the right to see the world through their eyes — due to a shortage of corneas.

Over four visually-impaired persons visit the Tilganga Eye Centre (TEC)-based Nepal Eye Bank (NEB) for corneal transplants, but the NEB cannot cater to them because it manages to collect just one cornea of surgical quality on an average day.

Around 400 people are awaiting corneal transplantation in the TEC.

“People do not want to pledge their corneas though they are aware of the need to posthumously donate corneas to the visually-impaired people,” Shankha Narayan Twayana, eye bank manager at the TEC, told this daily.

“Nowadays we are collecting at least one cornea of useful quality from ghaats (crematoriums) and the places from where we get calls for the extraction of corneas following the death of persons,” Twayana further said.

The eye bank stopped the import of corneas from International Federation of Eye and Tissue Banks (IFETB) after 1998.

The cornea can be extracted from the dead within 12 hours and, depending on the quality of preserving medium, it can be preserved for up to 12 days.

He said, “Even the educated people hesitate to donate their eyes though they know that their eyes can make someone live happily.”

In association with the Rotary Clubs, Schools, Colleges and other social organisations, the hospital has been launching awareness campaigns and eye donation camps, but these campaigns have failed to meet the expectations of the NEB.

“These programmes will not help unless people themselves feel the need to donate corneas.”

Keeping in view the increasing demand for corneas, the hospital aims to establish collection centres outside the valley. The hospital has trained health experts in Biratnagar and Birgunj for this.

“Corneal donation and transplantation is a non-profit business. That is why, people are not much interested in working for corneal transplantation,” he said, adding that the TEC is doing corneal transplantation for free.