Deceased organ donation, including those of nearly 1.5 lakh road accident victims annually, and lung donations, the need for which has gone up after Covid-19 — this is a big focus of the 15-days ‘Seva Pakhvada’ starting September 17 on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday. The drive will continue till October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
News18 has accessed a background note of the government which was sent to all ministers by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya earlier this month, asking for a campaign to register online pledges of willing citizens for organ donation.
“A living donor above the age of 18 years can donate either kidney or part of his liver, however there are concerns of possible commercial trading in such donations and inherent risk to the health of the living donor. A deceased donor can be of any age and can donate all vital organs namely kidney, liver, heart, lungs, pancreas and intestine and many tissues like cornea, skin, bone, heart valves, cartilage; thus one deceased donor can save up to eight lives and improve the quality of life of many others,” the government note mentioned.
The figures furnished by the government show out of 16,041 organ transplants done in the country last year, 13,348 were living organ transplants while only 2,694 were deceased organ transplants. Just 941 deceased donors were available for transplants in 2022.
‘Promote Deceased Organ Donation’
The note says that, thus, there is a need to promote deceased organ donation.
“About 1.5 lakh deaths happen annually due to road traffic accidents in India – a large number of these cases could be harvested for organs. Besides this, there are potential donors like cases of brain haemorrhage and stroke,” the note said.
It further said that after the Covid-19 pandemic, the need for lung transplants has also gone up. Only 144 lung transplants were possible in 2022.
“For need of 40,000 to 50,000 liver transplants, only 4,000 livers are available for transplants and for need of 50,000 heart transplants, only about 450 transplants are carried out. Many patients also require transplants of pancreas and intestine for saving their lives,” the government note said.
It also points out that India is home to around one-third of corneal blind people in the world, which could only be helped with eye donation. “Skin donation can help save the lives of burn patients. Many patients require bones, heart valves and other tissues to treat their diseases,” the note added.
The government has highlighted that there is a huge shortage of organs available for carrying out transplants, resulting in a wide gap between demand and supply of organs in the country.
“As per estimates, 2 lakh new patients require kidney transplants every year, for which only around 12,000 kidneys are available for transplants; similarly, for a need of 40,000 to 50,000 liver transplants, only 4,000 livers are available,” the note said.
India Did the Best in 2022
At 16,041, the highest number of organ donations was achieved by the country in 2022, but organ donation rate continues to be less than 1 per million population, the government has said in its note to all ministers.
“The highest organ donation rate in the world is in Spain, where around 48 persons per million population donate their organs after death,” the note said.
As many as 11,705 of the 16,041 organ donations were of a kidney, 3,920 of liver, 243 of heart, 144 of lung, 26 of pancreas and three of small bowel. 2022 saw the highest number of deceased donors in five years and the highest total number of organ transplants over the years.
Comments
0 comment