The Rotary Club of Rourkela Steel City in association with the Ispat General Hospital (IGH) here organised a talk on eye donation on Tuesday.
Rourkela Steel Plant Director (Medical and Health Services) Dr BB Rao said cornea is very crucial for one’s sight and corneal blindness is caused by infection, malnutrition, bad surgery and injury, etc. There are over 4.6 million corneal blind people in the country.While two lakh corneas need to be harvested annually, its availability per year is only 30,000, informed Dr Rao.
He further said that there is no man-made substitute for a human cornea and only a donated human cornea can restore sight to a blind person. A cornea can be donated only after death and should be harvested within six to eight hours of the death.An eye bank has been recently opened at the IGH and 32 eyes have been so far collected from donors. The meeting was presided over by Rotary Club president Munmun Saha. Club’s former president Dr Anjana Maitra coordinated the talk.