The Punjab Government has come up with strategies to free the state of corneal blindness. A total of 550 cases of corneal blindness have been found in the state for transplantation.
With the coordination of public and private eye banks, the government will secure at least 3,000 corneas and perform 1,500 more corneal transplant surgeries every year.
A decision to this effect was taken at a gathering between Health and Medical Education Departments of Punjab, Ophthalmology Department of AIIMS in New Delhi and heads of public and private eye banks of Punjab and Chandigarh.
Vini Mahajan Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, who lead the meeting, about 1,000 eyeballs were being retrieved and 500 corneal transplant surgeries were being carry out in the state every year.