Angela Onwuzoo Towards reducing the burden of blindness in the country, medical experts have urged Nigerians to embrace the practice of cornea donation to reduce the burden of blindness in the country. The senior health professionals said there was an urgent need to address the acute shortage of corneas in the country, stressing that cornea donation could play a significant role in reducing blindness caused by damaged corneas. The experts spoke during a symposium in Lagos on Tuesday at an event commemorating the 2024 World Organ Donation Day, organised by Eye Bank for Restoring Sight, Nigeria with the theme, ‘Giving a Gift that Goes on Living’ The cornea is the front part of the eye, which is clear and transparent.
Damage to the cornea, often due to infections or trauma, could lead to severe visual impairment or blindness. The experts noted that several people in society have corneal blindness that could be corrected through a surgery called a corneal graft, using a new, clear cornea to replace the scarred cornea, and it would greatly improve their vision. They expressed worry that many Nigerians were reluctant to donate their corneas based on traditional and cultural reasons.
They, however, assured that there was great potential for cornea donation. A Consultant Ophthalmologist and Cornea Surgeon at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Dr. Ogundipe Bade, appealed to Nigerians to ignore cultural beliefs and donate their corneas when they are still alive so they could be harvested after their death for those who need them.
Ogundipe said that the benefit of donating cornea was to help other people whose cornea had been damaged to restore their eyesight because the eyes of a dead person melt within two days after death. He disclosed that the best time to harvest the cornea after death was six hours except the body was kept in a refrigerator or embalmed in the mortuary. The ophthalmologist noted that some of the challenges of getting people to donate their corneas include fear; most people are scared of donating their corneas because they feel the organs of their body will not be complete when they reincarnate.
“Some believe it is a fetish and some also believe in reincarnation. They believe they will be reincarnated in the same body and organ they died with”, he added. According to him, only two hundred transplants have been done in Nigeria and all of the corneas except four were imported because only a few people in Nigeria are donating their corneas.
The problem with imported corneas is that one might not get it as fast as expected. He also disclosed that one cornea could be used to treat three or four people if the Eye Bank is capable of splitting the tissue. And 14 days is the lifespan of a cornea that has been harvested.
“The process of one donating their cornea involves one visiting an eye foundation, filling the necessary forms and telling his/her family about it so that once the person dies the family will contact the eye foundation to harvest it and then keep it in the Eye Bank”, Ogundipe said. He said most of the cornea problems in Nigeria are due to infections. Therefore what we need is to create awareness and educate people about organ donations.
President of the Transplant Association of Nigeria, Prof Olugbenga Awobusuyi encouraged everyone to participate in organ donation and be an organ donor because a single deceased individual can save the lives of eight other individuals and improve the conditions of many more. According to him, organ transplantation is done in a regulated environment and no professional will certify a patient dead for the purpose of organ transplantation because it is not primarily for that; it is primarily to determine whether the patient is dead or not so that the life support and expensive treatment can be stopped. The Chairman of the Eye Bank for Restoring Sight in Nigeria, Festus Oshoba, said that the organisation was collaborating and cooperating with the National Advisory Council for the Blind and other non-governmental agencies to achieve their goals.
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