The National Eye Donation Fortnight is celebrated every year from the 25th of August to 08th of September for the last 38 years in India to raise awareness about eye donation and motivate people to pledge their eyes for donation after death. India has over 12 Million blind people out of which about 4 Million are corneal blind which means that their corneas are the cause of their blindness. These are the people who can benefit from eye donations.
Eye donation involves a corneal transplant in which corneal blindness can be treated by replacing the damaged cornea with the donated (healthy) one. Around 25000 additional cases are added every year. More than 90% of eye transplants are carried out successfully and help restore vision in people with corneal blindness.
Vision plays a pivotal role in our everyday activities but many are not fortunate to experience the beauty of the world around us, due to chronic diseases, visual impairments or injuries.
The Goal of National Eye Donation Fortnight: –
1. Encourage people to donate their eyes after death.
2. Educate people that eye donation does not harm after death.
3. To spread knowledge about the need for eye transplant.
Facts about eye donation: –
1. Eyes can be donated only after death.
2. One donor can gift vision to two corneal blind people.
3. Anyone with long sightedness, short sightedness, astigmatism, cataract and glaucoma regardless of their age, sex, blood type, gender or religion. Any one above the age of one year can donate their eyes.
4. Patients with diabetes, asthma, tuberculosis, and hypertension can also donate their eyes.
5. The eyes should be removed within six hours after death. The body must be kept in a cool place.
6. A small quantity of blood is taken for testing from the donor’s body.
7. Eyes can be donated irrespective of whether the person had pledged their eyes or not.
8. The total time for the procedure is about 15-20 minutes. Eye donation does not disfigure the face nor does it delay funeral rites.
9. Donor and receiver information are kept confidential.
10. Eyes donated can never be bought or sold.
Approximately 11 lakh of the population of our country are waiting for corneal transplantation and approximately 25 thousand cases are added every year due to eye injuries, vitamin A deficiency, infections, malnutrition etc, which are mostly children and young adults. As against an annual requirement of 75 thousand to 1 lakh corneas, only 22 thousand corneas are donated at present.
Hence, there is a vast gap between supply and demand. The purpose of this Eye Donation Fortnight is to address this gap and create social awareness. Eye donation is dependent on people pledging their eyes for donation upon their death or family members choosing to donate the eyes of a deceased person. We all can contribute by pledging to donate our eyes and educate our peers about the facts and the need for eye donation.
Become an eye donor today and light up someone’s life.
Dr Renjano N Okhyopvui