Corneal blindness high in India: LVPEI founder
It is estimated that India has a disease burden of 1.3 mn people with bilateral corneal blindness
Dr Gullapalli N Rao, Founder-Chair of the LV Prasad Eye Institute
Vijayawada India has the highest burden of corneal blindness in the world. It is estimated that India has a disease burden of 1.3 million people with bilateral corneal blindness. Once blindness occurs with an opacity of the cornea, the only way to restore sight is by corneal transplantation, according to Dr Gullapalli N Rao, Founder-Chair of the LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI).
Dr Rao recently delivered the Doyne Doyne Lecture at the Oxford Ophthalmology Congress. Named in the memory of Prof. Robert Doyne in 1917, this is the oldest eponymous lecture in ophthalmology. Prof. Robert Doyne was the founder of the Oxford Eye Hospital, the first-ever academic eye department, and he was the first Reader of Ophthalmology at Oxford.
Dr Rao was the first ophthalmologist ever working in India to deliver this lecture in its 106-year history. The Oxford Ophthalmological Congress is the annual meeting of UK-based and international ophthalmologists at Oxford. This year, the Congress was held at Oxford, UK. Established in 1909 by Robert Doyne, the Congress is the most long-standing event for ophthalmologists in the United Kingdom. The prestigious Doyne lecture was inaugurated in 1917, a year after Robert Doyne’s death.
