Most of our corneas are from the USA – Cornea Specialist

A Cornea Specialist at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr. Gladys Fourdjour, has disclosed that a substantial number of corneas used for eye transplants in Ghana are sourced from the United States.

The distance between these overseas sources, she said, raises concern about the viability of these vital tissues for transplant procedures.

Speaking on GhanaWeb’s Lowdown, Dr. Gladys Fourdjour highlighted the remarkable challenges that the medical community faces when acquiring corneas for transplantation in the country.

“Half of the year, we’ve done 18. Next month, we’ve just had an email that somebody else is coming and hand-carrying it.

“They also solicit from the eye banks in the US. So, most of our corneas are from the US. Recently we’ve had one from Nepal. But you can see the distance the tissues are from us. So, we believe that even the distance may have some effects on the tissues” she explained.

Dr. Gladys Fourdjour emphasised that the ideal scenario would involve having cornea tissues readily available within a short time frame for transplantation.

The reliance on overseas sources for corneas has been an ongoing practice for years, with a significant portion of the transplants taking place over the past five years.

“The best is having the tissues here and transplanting them, within a few hours and that eye is good as new.

“So, its been going on for some years but majority of what we’ve done so far has been going on for the past five years,” she added.

Ghana’s leading digital news platform, GhanaWeb, in conjunction with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is embarking on an aggressive campaign which is geared towards ensuring that parliament passes comprehensive legislation to guide organ harvesting, organ donation, and organ transplantation in the country.





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