Chandigarh: “We aimed at making Punjab Corneal Blindness Backlog Free State by 31st December 2017. The Health Department is working 24X7 to ensure that there must not be any patient in Punjab, suffering from blindness because of corneal disease in both the eyes.” said Mr. Brahm Mohindra, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Punjab.

Divulging further Details here today, Mr. Brahm Mohindra said that in a bid to make Punjab as Corneal Blindness Backlog Free State, ‘Eye Donation Fortnight’ is being celebrated in all districts of state and about 1000 persons have been pledged to donate their eyes till date.

Mr.Mohindra said that health department has also run a state wide campaign in which a dedicated audio-visual awareness van visited in all major cities and towns to motivate the people to donate their eyes to make Punjab as ‘Corneal Blindness Backlog Free State’. He said that soon state government will implement the road map concerning upgradation of the infrastructure of eye banks and capacity building of Ophthalmologists to achieve the target in a time bound manner.

He said that since March 17 to June 2017, about 341 Corneas procured from the state and 212 corneal Transplant Surgeries (Keratoplasties) have successfully been conducted in registered Keratoplasty Centers.

He further said that awareness drive to prevent needless corneal blindness will be launched effectively along with other supportive measures by the health department. He said that still we are focusing on patients who are suffering from treatable ‘Bilateral Corneal Blindness’ and are willing to get operated. He said that special screening camps are being organized at district level to screen treatable corneal blind patients who are interested for surgery. These patients will be referred to nearest Cornea Transplant centers.

He said that Deputy Commissioners will be involved to identify the blind patients and facilitating eye donations by coordinating with all stakeholders. He said that as per record, there are about 135 cases waiting for surgery, registered with KP Centres.