LUCKNOW: There is positive news for those waiting for the gift of sight — an impressive 85% jump has been reported in the number of corneal transplants undertaken at King George’s Medical University every year since 2015. The six-and-a-half-fold rise has brought the waiting period for a corneal transplant down to just one week.Earlier, a patient had to wait for eight to 10 months for a corneal transplant at KGMU.Against 107 corneal transplants performed in 2015, ophthalmic surgeons at KGMU undertook 707 surgeries in 2018. Medical director of KGMU community eye bank Dr Arun Kumar said: “We hope to cross the number in 2019. It looks possible as 157 people have been given vision between January 1and March 8 this year.”Crediting the improvement in medical facilities to awareness efforts and a formal set-up in the form of the community eye bank, Dr Kumar said though the rise has brought down the general waiting list for corneal transplants at the medical university to 7-10 days, a lot still needs to be done.This is because 4% or 1.85 million of the global visually impaired people (45 million) live in Uttar Pradesh “The saddest part is that the loss of vision in majority of these people is preventable,” said Dr Y K Pathak, director of the National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment.“Cataract and refractive errors are the most common causes of blindness in UP. Both problems are reversible in nature but lead to permanent blindness if ignored,” he informed.

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