Facts & figures
Corneal blindness, in numbers
Blindness from corneal disease is a major ophthalmic public health problem in India, and an unusual one: the treatment exists, works almost always, and is limited mainly by the supply of donated tissue and the ability to pay.
- 1.2 millionPeople in India are corneal blind today.
- 25,000–30,000Join them every year.
- 75,000–100,000Corneas needed annually in India. About 35,000 are donated.
- 270,000Donor eyes that would be required to perform 100,000 transplants a year in India — roughly four times current availability.
- 97%Of corneal transplant operations successfully restore the recipient’s vision.
- 1.8 millionPeople worldwide whose sight has been restored by corneal transplantation since 1961.
- 10 millionCornea-blind individuals worldwide.
- 184,576Corneal transplants performed across 116 countries in 2012, from 283,530 corneas held in 742 eye banks.
- 53%Of the world’s population had no access to corneal transplantation.
- 4%Of the world’s 39 million blind people have corneal opacity, per the WHO; another 3% have trachoma, which damages the cornea.
Corneal transplantation is the only viable route to visual rehabilitation for people blinded by corneal disease. The gap between the demand for donor corneas and their supply is the constraint on every programme in the country, including this one.