China's eye banks urgently need donated corneas, as a million people in this country are suffering from corneal blindness, "China Daily" reported on December 3.

Mahmood Farazdaghi, administrative director of the International Federation of Eye Banks (IFEB), was quoted as saying after his recent inspection of the Shanghai Eye Bank.

IFEB is a non-governmental, non-profit organization which aims to eradicate corneal blindness around world. China's two eye banks, the Shanghai and Beijing branches, are both facing cornea shortages.

According to Qiu Xiaozhi, director of the Shanghai Eye Bank, the stock of corneas in the bank has almost run out.

A total of 969 Shanghai residents, sponsored by the government of Xuhui District of the city, signed agreements on Tuesday to donate their corneas after their death, which inspires Farazdaghi greatly.

The Beijing center has a larger stock, but the total amount of corneas in the two banks still can not meet the great demands of the one million patients in China, said Farazdaghi.

Farazdaghi said that the disease is especially serious in developing countries due to the heavy air pollution and poor working conditions in factories, adding that corneal transplantation is currently the only way to cure such blindness.

Chinese people seem to be too conservative to donate their corneas compared with the westerners, Qiu said. Every year America exports surplus donated corneas to needed countries while the cost of 2,000 US dollars for each cornea is too high for Chinese patients.

Local experts and officials call on education via mass media and governmental support to give publicity to the donation of corneas since the tradition here is not amiable towards organ donation. (Xinhua)