Chennai: Over 20 million people lose their eyesight due to various problems in India; of this, corneal blindness accounts for two million.

“If you take corneal blindness, 50 per cent of two million are children below the age of 15,” informs Dr. Mohan Rajan of Rajan Eye Care Hospital.

In order to create awareness among people, eye donation fort­nig­ht is observed fr­om August 25 and Se­ptember 8 every year.

On Sunday, Rajan Eye Bank, Rajan Eye Care Hospital and Rotary Club of Madras, T. Nagar together organised an eye donation awareness rally that started from Light House.

In all, Rotarians and 2,500 students took part in the rally, carrying placards saying ‘Do not burn or bury your eyes. Donate them’.

“This is the ninth year we are organising this rally. Since the inception of the Rajan Eye Bank in 1996, more than 4500 corneal transplant surgeries were performed free of cost,” says Dr Rajan. Cataract forms the majority of blindness cases and 75 per cent of adult blindness and 50 per cent of childhood blindness are either curable or preventable.

Corneal blindness am­ong children may be due to various reasons such as birth defects, injury and corneal infections, among others.

“If we get around 100 eyes, only 50 can be used. In Chennai, nearly 80-90 deaths occur per day, but only between 12 and 15 pairs of eyes are donated. Over 70 eyes are wasted and that’s why we need awareness on eye donation,” says Dr Rajan. Even among the 15 pairs, only half can be used for optical keratoplasty, informs the ophthalmologist.

SOURCE: http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130902/news-current-affairs/article/rally...