More than 25,000 persons suffering from visual impairment in Ghana have cornea defects.
The number represents 11.2 per cent of the country's total blind population which stands at 330,000 per the last national population based prevalence survey.
This came to light at an inaugural cornea transplant summit in Accra on Friday, organised by the Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP) and the Ophthalmologist Society of Ghana on the theme: 'paving the way to cure corneal blindness in Ghana.'
The summit sought to push for parliamentary approval for eye cornea transplant and establishment of cornea banks in Ghana.
Bringing together stakeholders including traditional leaders, clergy, health professionals, academia and survivors, the summit emphasised the need for immediate legislation of the procedure to reduce the high incidence of cornea related blindness in the country.
The presidential advisor on health, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, in a remark noted that the number of persons suffering from the ailment negatively affected the workforce of the country which in the long term would affect socio-economic development.
He disclosed that corneal blindness was curable, however, the absence of cornea tissues for the transplantation had left several persons blind in one eye or blind in both eyes.
"The importance of corneal transplantation legislation and the promotion of eye and organ donation is therefore crucial to achieving total socio-economic transformation of the unfortunate patients and the nation for health is wealth," he said.
Dr Nsiah-Asare called for further review of the proposed Ghana national guidelines for human organs /tissues donations and transplantations to streamline the processes for quality in donations, storage and transplantations of human organs and tissues in the country.
He explained that tissue donation had taken off in many countries in a very successful way, hence the need for Ghana to follow suit to shore up the survival rates of patients through tissue and organ transplantations.
Dr Nsiah-Asare pledge to ensure that the legislation on tissue donations and transplant was passed within the shortest possible time.
The Technical Advisor, Dr Boateng Wiafe in his presentation on "the burden of corneal blindness in Ghana" noted that blindness from corneal disease was a major ophthalmic public health concern, as it disproportionately affected poor and rural communities.
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He added that although more than 25,000 people suffered from the disease, about 10,000 people were blind in one eye, hence the need to put the necessary legislation in place to harvest corneas for transplant.
On the causes of the disease, he said that infections and inflammatory eye diseases such as "keratitis, xerophthalmia, eye trauma, congenital disease and home remedies" were responsible.
Dr Wiafe added that "significant social and logistical barriers, a lack of trained corneal surgeon and absence of eye banking infrastructure" were the barriers to successful corneal transplantation in the country.
A Beneficiary of Cornea Transplant, Mr Prince Owusu Banahene Sarkodie, appealed to the government to fast-track the legislation for tissue and organ transplantation as more people were suffering from the disease, and few people were receiving treatment.
He commended the government for the inclusion of the treatment onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), whilst calling for a review to include all medication and associated treatment.
