Prevention of diseases can help reduce supply-demand gap in organ donations: Docs

Stating that preventing kidney diseases and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is the need of the hour, Dr Sunil Shroff, Managing Trustee, Mohan Foundation, said, “We need to look into multiple factors at once. Alongside increasing the number of donations, we need to look into prevention of diseases as well as the possibilities of bringing in more government hospitals under the ambit of the organ transplant body. Only around seven government hospitals in the state carry out transplantations.”

“It is estimated that 30 to 35 per cent of the kidneys and over 40 per cent of the liver requirement is met by deceased donations. There is a definite increase. However, lots of patients continue to remain on the waiting list,” he said.

“Despite the fact that one brain dead person can save up to eight lives, lakhs of lives are lost due to the lack of donations. It will take several years to get anywhere close to checking the gap. However, ensuring that the supply meets the demand of organs is almost impossible,” said Dr Sundar K, a Nephrologist.

Stating that only 6,000 hearts are used every year, he said that over 40,000 kidneys are transplanted each year. “One of the major challenges’ doctors are faced with in our country is the problem of superstitious beliefs that prevent many from agreeing to donate their deceased kin’s organs.

While many tend to register as donors, getting permission from their families following their demise is a herculean task,” he added.

It may be noted that 6,886 organs have been harvested from 1,198 donors so far, which is far higher than the case in many other states.