China has set up two data banks on ophthalmic treatment techniques and eye disease in Hubei Province.

Officials from the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness claim that they are the first data banks of their kind in the world.

The data banks established under "Sight First China Operation," the world's biggest blindness prevention and treatment campaign, collected files conducted from a national survey in 1997 and 1998 on information of eye patients and oculists, and the location of ophthalmic hospitals.

According to the survey, China has some 9 million eye patients with 4 million of them suffering from cataracts, accounting for 20 percent of the world's total.

There are 400,000 new cataract patients in China. Only half of them can be cured with the country's present ophthalmic surgery techniques, said Zhang Wenbin, a professor from Tongji Medical Sciences University in Shanghai, who is also a co-designer of the data banks.

The data banks will provide reliable information resources and accumulate research on advanced eye disease treatment, said James Owen, director of the International Association of Lion Clubs. The Lion Club works closely with "Sight First China Operation." (Xinhua)