Eye Bank seeking law on cornea transplants
Eye Bank seeking law on cornea transplants
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Eye Bank is seeking the
establishment of a law which will allow immediate cornea
transplantation from unidentified corpses.
Siti Maemunah Alamsjah Ratuprawiranegara, the chairperson of
the non-governmental organization, told a hearing of the House
Commission VIII on health affairs here yesterday that such a law
would help meet the domestic cornea demand. "We're short of
corneas," she said.
The existing law on health, issued in 1992, allows the
collection of organs from unidentified corpses. However, there
are articles in the law which stipulate that transplants be
conducted at least two days after a person's death, just in case
the individual's relatives appear and claim the body.
Meanwhile, "corneas can only survive for no longer than six
hours," if not removed from the body, she said.
Some 1.5 million Indonesians suffer from blindness, but only
1.5 of them have been helped through cornea transplants, she
said.
The eye bank's deputy chairman, Bondan Herman, said Indonesia
is dependent on imported corneas. The country used to import 200
corneas from Sri Lanka every year for US$100 per cornea. He said
that a foundation in the Netherlands paid 75 percent of the
price.
In 1994, Sri Lanka raised the price to US$200. Since the
Netherlands' foundation refused the increase, Indonesia stopped
the import altogether, he said.
"In 1995, there weren't any transplants using imported
corneas," he said.
This year, Indonesia started importing corneas again, this
time with the help of a United-States based foundation, The
Dessert. Around 100 corneas have been bought so far.
Meanwhile, the Eye Bank is accelerating its effort to increase
domestic supply of corneas. It has so far registered 22,500
people willing to donate their corneas upon their deaths.
"The problem is, 80 percent of our potential donors are young
people under the age of 40," he added. "That means we'll have a
much longer time to wait for the cornea supply to be available."
The Eye Bank is the only body approved by the government to
handle cornea donations since the country proclaimed blindness as
a national disaster in 1968. Currently, it has 22 branches across
the country.
Yesterday's hearing was also attended by other non-
governmental organizations actively involved in the problem of
blindness, including representatives of the U.S.-based Helen
Keller foundation, Rotary Club, Lions Club, as well as the
Dharmais foundation, which are among the Eye Bank's major
financial donors. (01)