Corneal Donations and Transplants in Vietnam

When I went to the Association for Vision in Research and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Annual Meeting–held in Fort Lauderdale, FL—I was amazed by the incredible research and advances occurring in the field of ophthalmology in the United States and other highly developed countries.  However, reading about the current situation of eye care in Vietnam, I am saddened by the reality that Vietnamese citizens face.

A few months back, I wrote an article entitled Seeing the Facts about Blindness in Vietnam.  Today’s article, I want to focus on a particular aspect of blindness: blindness due to corneal diseases and the necessity of corneal transplants.

Recently, Viet Nam News told of the story of Le Van Doang, a student suffering from a corneal disease.  Doanh noticed his decreasing eyesight at age twelve and was diagnosed with a genetic corneal defect.  While he passed his university entrance exam, he was unable to matriculate due to his vision problems.  However, upon receiving a corneal donation, he underwent surgery and now will be able to start school.  Yet, this is only one success story out of the thousands that are currently suffering in Vietnam.

Cornea Donations

ORBIS, an international non-profit organization, was the main provider of donor corneas to the Eye Bank under the Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology.  The Eye Bank opened in 2005 and has received help from ORBIS until 2009 when ORBIS suspended donations due to the economic regression.

Dr. Nguyen Huu Hoang reported that the Eye Bank now has to rely on in-country donations for corneas.  However, the waiting list to receive donor corneas is longer than the few donations they receive annually.

Lack of Corneal Donations due to Traditional Mindset

In Vietnam, 300,000 people go blind annually because they cannot receive transplants for their corneal disease, and 15,000 additional diagnoses are made every year.  The answer to this problem is simple: If there were more donations, then many people would not have to suffer from vision defects unnecessarily.

Yet, the difficulty is receiving corneas is the traditional practices that are deeply ingrained in the culture of Vietnam.  Family members want to see their love ones as a complete person even when they pass away.  The corneas, the eyes, are a very sacred part of a person, and many cannot bear to part with this or other parts of their bodies.

Addressing the Deficiencies in Corneal Donations

To address the current problem, the Eye Bank has teamed up with the Red Cross to organize a campaign to call upon people’s generosity to donate.  The Eye Bank realizes that it will take a lot to change cultural beliefs, but they have not given up.  The Eye Bank and Red Cross aim to collaborate with hospitals, schools, and healthcare sectors to bring awareness to this issues among the citizens so as to increase people’s openness to cornea and tissue donation.

Personal Comments

While some can argue that transplantation has occurred for thousands of years, the advances and technology capabilities have just recently emerged.  Therefore, the practice of organ transplantation worldwide is a very recent phenomenon.  In Vietnam, the first laws on human organ transplantation and regulations against commercialization of human organs have just been implemented in the year 2006.

Hence, it is understandable why there would be a shortage in organ donations.  Vietnam citizens are not open to the idea of giving a part of their bodies because of traditional beliefs.

While I believe donating your organs and your corneas is an act of altruism, I think that encouraging people to donate because of this reason is not the most effective.  There needs to be a reinvention of mindset in the country for this problem to be solved.

Furthermore, I am excited about the artificial cornea project being conducted at the Opthalmology Department of Stanford School of Medicine.  If this project to synthetically make a cornea substitute is successful, the need for donor corneas would be curbed, and we would be able to treat many more people!

Both changing people’s cultural perceptions and the invention of a man-made cornea will take years; however, I am hopeful and positive that the advancements in visual health of Vietnam will come.