Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2016-07-26

Approval for the Memorandum of Understanding for the Development of the National Eye Bank of Sri Lanka

- According to the information of the World Health Organization (WHO), Corneal Blindness is the fourth leading cause of blindness in the World. This can be cured by restoring the sight through Corneal transplant. Presently, the number of persons afflicted with Corneal Blindness exceeds 10 million and the lack of supply of Corneas to meet the demand has been a constraint against the elimination of Corneal Blindness. The National Eye Bank of Sri Lanka plays an important role in the elimination of Corneal Blindness in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka National Eye Bank is the only Eye Bank in Sri Lanka that operates with quality certificates according to internationally accepted medical standards and observes without fail the ethics that are to be followed in the transplanting of eye tissues. The 'Asian Corneal Blindness Foundation' and the SightLife, which is a non-profit global health organization have come forward to provide technical assistance and training opportunities required for the National Eye Bank of Sri Lanka and with the objective of developing the National Eye Bank of Sri Lanka, the proposal made by Hon. (Dr.) Rajitha Senaratne, the Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, to enter into the Memoranda of Understanding with those institutions, was approved by the Cabinet.