The first eye bank in the southern region made its debut in Ho Chi Minh City on July 20. This is an effort by the HCM City Poor Patient Sponsor Association to bring light to the blind.

The eye bank is part of a programme run by the association to assist poor blind people.

Equipped with an aseptic laboratory and essential tools and machines, the bank will receive, assess, preserve and distribute corneas to health facilities which will perform corneal transplant surgeries.

The association has also helped the facilities to train their health workers and set up a team which is always ready to receive donated corneas.

Over the past 18 years, the association has supported over 370,000 cataract-related blind people across the country.

However, there are still about 300,000 patients who are likely to suffer from blindness for their whole life without new corneas.-VNA