Eye Bank, Italy-USA Partnership
The Mestre-based Fondazione onlus Banca degli occhi del Veneto, was accredited with top marks yesterday by the Eye Bank Association of America for the next three years, and became the only European in the American circuit. The agreement was signed at the Istituto Superiore della Sanità with the participation Minister of Health, Girolamo Sirchia, the president of the Institute, Enrico Garaci, the president of the Foundation, Piergiorgio Coin, and the head of the Eye Bank Association of America, Patricia Aiken O'Neill.
The Veneto Eye Bank Foundation is the first in Europe and the second in the world for the number of corneas procured (over 27 thousand since 1987) and distributed (11 thousand) to date. The Veneto region holds the national record for donations and transplants, followed by Tuscany and Emilia. But it's the entire country that has achieved excellent results in this field. Last year there were 6700 donors, with the possibility of performing 13,154 removals and 5,540 transplants.
According to data compiled by the National Transplant Center, in 2001 Italy came first in Europe for the number of transplants performed (98 for every one million inhabitants, out of a requirement of around 100 per million inhabitants). The data for the first six-months of 2002 confirm Italian leadership ahead of France (75 transplants per million) and Spain (60).
'Whereas the future of corneal disorders awaits new results from studies on the retina', said Minister of Health, Girolamo Sirchia, 'today it is extremely important that Italy and the United States set up a collaboration on health by integrating the various branches of scientific research - physical medicine and engineering - in order to achieve common goals'.
Piergiorgio Coin, president of the Foundation, is of the same opinion: 'Our collaborators went to Michigan and Chicago and doctors from the States came to Mestre. We have been working with the Eye Banks of Maryland and New York since 1991. But let's not forget that a philosophy of giving to others and solidarity must be at the basis of all successes'.
