In consideration of the recent Coronavirus outbreak, members of the Global Alliance of Eye Bank Associations (GAEBA) have consolidated international responses in relation to ocular tissue donation so as to issue a global alert outlining those recommendations that apply to both active transmission zones and non-effected zones (https://www.gaeba.org/2020/alert-coronavirus-2019-ncov-and-ocular-tissue-donation/).
All the same, as response plans vary across the world, and will continue to change, depending on the country and the spread of the disease, GAEBA advises that all Eye Banks and their Medical Directors contact their competent health authority and/or their respective Eye Bank Association, to ascertain up-to-date local/regional exclusion and deferral criteria.
To this end, the EEBA Medical Special Interest Group has recently updated the EEBA’s Minimum Medical Standards by specifically citing this virus with regards to evaluating “Evidence of any other risk factors for transmissible diseases on the basis of a risk assessment”. In addition, the Medical and Technical Guidelines SIG would like to underline to EEBA Members the surveillance and epidemic intelligence actions of the European Centre of Disease Control on this issue (https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/novel-coronavirus-china and https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/COVID%2019-supply-substances-human-origin-first-update.pdf.)
