Coimbatore : The four-day 76th annual conference of All India Ophthalmological Society, beginning here from February 22, will discuss among other things the visual impairment incidents in children in India.

More than 6000 ophthalmologists from India and several countries and 1500 trade delegates will participate in the conference – AIOC 2018 – to be held under the aegis of Tamil Nadu Ophthalmic Association and Coimbatore society of Opthalmic Surgeons.

“Former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly will inaugurate a walkathon on February 23 morning,” Chief Organising Secretary of the conference, Dr. V. Narendran told reporters on Tuesday.

“As many as 8.8 million people in India are visually challenged as per the last estimates in 2015 and 47.7 million people had moderate and severe vision impairment. Seven per cent of the totally impaired population are children and the numbers are increasing,” Narendran said.

On the patients required cornea transplant in India, Narendran said that as against the requirement of two lakh corneas per year, only 50,000 were available at present, leaving a long gap with a utilisation rate of 50 per cent.

“The main cause of blindness in India are cataract (62.6 per cent), refractive error (19.7), corneal blindness (0.90), glaucoma (5.80), surgical complications (1.20), posterior capsular opacifaction (0.90),” he said.