More than 200 Nigerians are currently waiting for corneal transplants, highlighting the urgent shortage of donated corneas in the country, the Eye Bank for Restoring Sight in Nigeria has said.
The organisation also estimates that about 1.5 per cent of Nigeria’s population is living with corneal blindness, with many cases potentially treatable through corneal transplantation.
Dr Festus Odunayo Oshoba, Chairman of the Eye Bank’s Board of Governors, disclosed this in Lagos during the unveiling of veteran actress Joke Silva as the organisation’s brand ambassador.
Oshoba said the Eye Bank had facilitated more than 95 successful corneal transplants over the years, including 19 procedures involving children aged between 30 months and 18 years.
He said the organisation had also successfully harvested corneas from two Nigerians who had pledged to donate their corneas before their deaths in 2010 and 2012.
According to him, the Eye Bank is working to establish a national register that will provide reliable data on Nigerians who have undergone corneal transplantation and those who have regained their sight.
“We are still trying to collate the data to have a national register to know how many have regained their sight and those that have had transplants,” Oshoba said.
He urged Nigerians to consider corneal donation, noting that it could help people suffering from reversible blindness regain their sight even after a donor’s death.
Oshoba identified cultural and religious beliefs, as well as misconceptions about organ harvesting, as some of the major barriers to corneal donation in Nigeria.
He said the Eye Bank was particularly concerned about the challenge of retrieving corneas quickly enough in cases where religious or cultural practices require deceased persons to be buried within a short period.
He explained that corneal donation does not involve removing the entire eye and that donated tissue can be used to restore sight in people with certain forms of corneal blindness.
The Medical Director of the Eye Bank, Dr Mosunmade Faderin, said the organisation was facing a severe shortage of donated corneas.
Faderin explained that the Eye Bank is a non-profit organisation involved in collecting, preserving and distributing donor eye tissues for corneal transplantation, medical education and research.
She said some Nigerians, including children, had lost their sight from preventable or treatable conditions because suitable donor corneas were unavailable.
According to her, some children in schools for the blind could potentially have regained their sight through corneal transplantation if donor tissues had been available.
Faderin disclosed that more than 200 patients were currently on the Eye Bank’s waiting list, underscoring the scale of the donation gap.
She said the organisation had been using its “Seeing is Believing” programme to facilitate sight-restoring procedures, including bringing corneal surgeons to Nigeria to perform transplants and demonstrate the potential of donated corneas.
The medical director urged Nigerians who have registered as donors to inform their families of their wishes.
She said failure to inform relatives often meant that the Eye Bank could not act quickly when a registered donor died.
Faderin said corneas generally need to be harvested within 24 hours after death, particularly when the body has been properly cooled and has not been embalmed.
She appealed to relatives of registered donors to contact hospitals or relevant organisations immediately after the donor’s death to allow the corneas to be retrieved within the required period.
Faderin said the Eye Bank was working to make Nigeria more self-sufficient in corneal procurement and transplantation and reduce dependence on imported donor tissues.
She said the organisation planned to strengthen partnerships with tertiary hospitals, expand public awareness and donor registration, establish a corneal preservation and training centre, and attract international grants and technical support.
The Eye Bank has also been conducting awareness campaigns in churches, clubs, Rotary and Lions organisations, private institutions and communities to promote cornea and organ donation.
The organisation said religious and community leaders, journalists and civil society groups had important roles to play in correcting misconceptions about tissue donation.
The impact of corneal donation was highlighted by beneficiaries and relatives of donors who shared their experiences at the event.
One beneficiary, Abisade Oguntibeji, said he regained his sight after undergoing a corneal transplant in 2022 following a severe bacterial corneal ulcer that had significantly affected his vision.
He said he had initially considered seeking treatment outside Nigeria after being told that corneal transplantation was difficult to access locally.
However, after eventually undergoing the procedure, he said his sight began to return on the day of the surgery.
Oguntibeji said his impaired vision had previously made basic activities such as eating, reading his Bible and using the toilet difficult.
Another speaker, Kunleola Sodipo, recounted how his family donated the corneas of his late brother, who had stated in his will that he wanted to become a cornea donor.
Sodipo said his brother was killed in 2010 and that the family initially faced legal and emotional challenges before his wishes could be fulfilled.
The two corneas were eventually harvested and transplanted into two different recipients.
He said meeting the beneficiaries helped the family appreciate the impact of their decision and encouraged them to advocate for cornea donation.
Fola Akande, another relative of a donor, said her mother’s corneas were harvested following her sudden death in September 2012.
According to Akande, the procedure was carried out within 18 hours of her mother’s death, and the donated corneas were subsequently transplanted successfully.
