Sandhani seeks more posthumous donations as cornea-related blindness rising

The Sandhani National Eye Donation Society has sought more posthumous donations as the number of people with cornea-related blindness is going up in Bangladesh.

Secretary General Dr Md Joynal Abdin said they can collect only 50 to 60 corneas a year which is far below the need.

Over half a million people are suffering from cornea-related blindness at this moment and 40,000 people are joining this tally every year, according to Abdin.

“If the current trend continues, it will take 6,000 years to remove this blindness,” he told bdnews24.com.

“Every year a million people die. If we can collect corneas from 2 percent of the dead people, it will be 40,000,” he said.

“Anyone can pledge posthumous donation. For others, family members can give consent to collect cornea after death,” he added.

Even Islam allows posthumous donation. The Grand Mufti of Al-Azhar University, the foremost institution in the Islamic world for the study of Sunni theology and Sharia, says when a person dies, doctors can decide what is useable for another human being and what is not.

The Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini had also issued a similar fatwa.

Sandhani has been leading Bangladesh's cornea collection since 1984. It also raises awareness about posthumous donation.

A seminar on posthumous organ donation was organised at Dhaka Medical College Hospital with the Director General for Health Services Prof Dr Abul Kalam Azad as the chief guest on July 4.