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Our Bureau

Hyderabad, Aug. 27 The Eye Bank Association of India (EBAI) has called for relaxation of the Organ Transplantation Act rules to let the eye banks collect more corneas.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Dr Radhika Tandon, Joint Secretary of EBAI, called for removing aspects related to the eye from the Human Organ Transplant Act.

“This is very important to increase cornea donations. In the US, corneas considered as tissues. If the same norm is adopted here, even technicians could collect corneas,” Dr Tandon, Professor of Ophthalmology at AIIMS (New Delhi) said.

She was here in connection with the National Eye Donation fortnight, which began on August 25, an LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) press release said.

According to her, there was a huge demand-supply mismatch. While the country needed one lakh corneas every year, the eye banks could collect only about 35,000.

Dr Usha Gopinathan, Associate Executive Director of LVPEI, said about 25 lakh Indians had corneal blindness. “They could regain vision if they get corneas,” she said.

More Stories on : Health | Andhra Pradesh

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