Eye Banking in Pakistan

Vision impairment and blindness due to corneal opacities (CO) are a global public health issue. According to the WHO World Report on Vision, CO was the fourth leading cause of blindness in the world, following refractive error, cataracts and glaucoma. The burden of corneal blindness is greater in low-to-middle- income countries (LMICs). Quality eye banking systems, based on professional medical standards, are necessary to provide these sight restoring surgeries for patients in these countries and regions. Eversight’s mission is to help countries, in particular LMICs, establish their own eye banking infrastructure.

Pakistan is one such country where an estimated 250,000 are suffering from avoidable vision loss due to corneal blindness. Starting in 2017, Eversight partnered with stakeholders in Pakistan to begin work on a national eye bank network.  Since then, our partners in Pakistan have maintained continued progress.  The partnership is equipped with a full range of training materials and eye banking standards, giving them the tools needed to implement and maintain a sustainable network of eye banking infrastructure.

At Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital in Rawalpindi, local hospital corneal retrieval staff has been hired, positioning them well on track to build a team to serve the local regions.

In February 2025, Eversight’s Vice President of Global Development, Collin Ross, visited Al-Shifa and gave an interview about developments in eye banking:

Vice President of Global Development, Collin Ross, met with Pakistan media representatives recently to discuss the burden of avoidable blindness in Pakistan, a country where corneal opacities have continued to be a significant cause of blindness and vision impairment. There are over 200,000 patients in need of a corneal transplant, and the country is currently only able to provide transplants for a small proportion of these patients, since the needed tissue is only available through imports from the US.  Mr. Ross described how this unmet need can best be served by a sustainable eye banking system to serve all of Pakistan.  Such a system can only succeed through an ethical system of consented donation, and it is this effort that Eversight and its partners in Pakistan are working to address.  The decision to donate ultimately transforms lives through the restoration of sight.

Each year, Eversight places tissues at Al-Shifa, resulting in restored vision for hundreds of patients, which has also supported their cornea surgery program and ultimately positioned them to launch their own eye banking effort. The greatest impact of our joint efforts will be felt in the future and will result in the most significant achievement – building their local capacity. While the project timeline was interrupted along the way, as we lost several years of work to COVID and other obstacles including natural disasters, our engagement has become re-invigorated starting in 2023.