Kathmandu, May 4:

The world remains shut for around 50 per cent of Nepalis suffering from curable blindness because corneas are in short supply.

Shankha Nrn Twyana, the Eye Bank manager at the Tilganga Eye Centre, told this daily that they are not getting enough corneas for transplantation. Twyana said, “We at the hospital have been able to restore vision of 40 per cent of blind people.”

“Currently, around 300 people are on the waiting list of the hospital, awaiting cornea transplantations.”

A blindness survey conducted in 1981 said one out of every 100 people is blind in Nepal. In 1994, the eye bank imported corneas from the International Federation of Eye and Tissue Banks (IFETB).

People do not want their corneas transplanted after death because they believe they will be born blind. Twyana said, “We started cornea transplantation by importing three corneas from IFETB in 1994.”

“Nowadays, we collect at least one cornea of useful quality every day from ghaats (places where bodies are cremated),” he said. The number of eye donors has gone up after we launched awareness programmes and conducted counselling sessions with ghaat attendants and sadhus in Pashupati. “After collecting 240 corneas at the eye bank, we stopped importing corneas in1998,” he said.

According to him, middle-class people are generally the ones who donate and receive corneas. Upper-class people are unwilling to donate their eyes.

Corneas can be extracted from the dead body within 12 hours. They can be preserved for 12 days.

MD Faiyaz Khan, a native of Bihar, said he was relieved from eye problems after he underwent corneal transplantation. Khan, who had bacterial infection in his right eye, said, “Doctors in Patna recommended this hospital.”

Sushila Bhattarai of Rautahat said she underwent corneal transplantation two years ago. She said, “I can see clearly just because somebody donated their eyes.”

People still people hesitate to donate their eyes, she said, adding, “Everybody should donate

their eyes because their deeds give a new life to someone.”

Agricultural trauma to cornea, ocular diseases and lack of immediate medical treatment are major causes for corneal blindness. Measles, typhoid, small pox and malnutrition may also leave the cornea opaque.