Cornea bank to be set up within four months

Equipment donated by Lions Clubs International Provisional Zone - Malta to St Luke's Hospital should enable a cornea bank to be set up within four months.

The benefits of the cornea bank are twofold: it should serve to reduce the waiting list for cornea transplants, which currently stands at around 40; and improve the quality of the transplants, said Thomas Fenech, chairman of the Ophthalmic Department.

The cornea bank deals with the collection, examination, storage and preparation of corneas for transplantation.

Cornea transplants have been carried out for the last 20 years, but only those from young multi-organ donors could be used, as quality-control equipment was not until now available.

Ophthalmologist Franco Mercieca, who specialises in cornea transplants, explained that until now corneas could not be examined before surgery, meaning that a 100 per cent success rate could not be guaranteed.

Between 15 and 18 transplants are carried out each year and the figure was expected to double through the use of the new quality control equipment.

The equipment could be used immediately, but the unit was expected to be up and running within about four months, and a nurse in charge of the eye bank was in the process of being appointed.

Work on the cornea bank project, which costs over Lm12,000, started in May, 2002, when Dr Mercieca, who runs the cornea service at St Luke's Hospital, pointed out the need for a cornea bank in Malta.

The project was partly financed through fund-raising events by five Lions Clubs within the Provisional Zone - Malta (Malta, Sliema, St Paul's Bay, Valletta and Mdina), and supported by a grant of about Lm6,000, donated by Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF).

Health Minister Louis Deguara spoke about the importance of the contributions of non-governmental organisations. He welcomed the fact that the idea of waiting for the government to provide everything, beyond the essential services, was changing.

Before accepting the donation, the health authorities had to ensure that the parameters of bioethics were foolproof to prevent any abuse, he said.

LCIF was founded in 1968 as a charitable arm of Lions Clubs International. It disburses millions of dollars each year for Sight First, a global programme to eliminate preventable and reversible blindness, and for other humanitarian projects, said Provisional Zone chairman Charles Pace.

There are 40 million blind people in the world.

Lions Clubs International have more than 1.4 million members in over 190 countries.

The association of Maltese Lions Clubs had also donated equipment to test people for glaucoma. Between February 2002 and 2003, 1,245 people were screened for glaucoma of whom 131 were referred to St Luke's Hospital for further checks.