The department of Ophthalmology, Jipmercelebrated the 34th National Eye Donation fortnight from September 3 by conducting drawing competition for Kendriya Vidyalaya -1 school children from class 6 to 10.

According to a Jipmer release on 10th September, Eye donation programme was also conducted at Jipmer and felicitated the donor families on 9th September. Dr Subashini Kaliaperumal, Professor and Head, Dept of Ophthalmology discussed the objectives of the eye donation programme. An awareness talk was given by Dr Ramesh Babu, Additional professor which cleared the myths and doubts about eye donation. The programme was attended by donor families, patients, general public, staff of JIPMER, school students of KV school, paramedical students including trauma care and nursing staff.

Blindness is one of the major public health problems in the developing countries. According to World Health Organization, corneal diseases (Damage to the tissue covering the front of eye called cornea) are among the major causes of vision loss and blindness, after cataract and glaucoma. After the death of a person, various organs can be donated and can be surgically transplanted to the patients who need them. One such organ is the eye. By donating eyes after death, a corneal blind person can see again through a surgical procedure known as corneal transplantation, whereby the damaged cornea is replaced by a healthy cornea from the eye donor.