Sindh to launch deceased-donor organ transplant programme: health minister

The Sindh health department has asked the leading transplant centres in the province to provide data and details of living-donor and cadaveric liver, kidney, cornea and bone marrow transplants carried out in last 10 years to ascertain the actual yearly needs of organ transplantation in the province, officials said on Friday.

The exercise will also help ascertain the actual number of living-donor and cadaver organ transplants being performed in the country as well as know the obstacles in the deceased-donor transplantation.

“We have asked six leading public and private transplant centres to provide us the data of transplants they have carried out in last 10 years. At the moment, our transplant centres in Sindh are carrying out only living-donor liver, kidney, corneal and bone marrow transplants,” Dr Saad Khalid Niaz, the Sindh caretaker health minister, told The News said on Friday.

Citing a recent study in a leading international scientific journal, he said every year, thousands of patients died from end-stage organ failure and they needed organ transplants for survival. He added that although the exact statistics were not available, according to an estimate, over 50,000 people died each year as a result of end-stage organ failure without getting a transplant.

It is estimated that between 15,000 and 18,000 people annually die due to kidney failure, and 10,000 from liver failure, whereas, the annual need for various organs in Pakistan is 25,000 kidneys, 100,000 livers, 7,000 hearts, and 2,000 each pancreas and lungs.

Unfortunately, the living organ donation programmes in the country have failed to cover the growing burden of end-stage diseases, the health minister explained.

“For the second, we have asked the transplantation centres, including Dow, SIUT, GAMBAT, AKUH, LNH and Ziauddin Hospitals, to provide us the details of transplants they carried out in the last 10 years to ascertain the actual situation and launch a cadaver or deceased donor organ transplant programme in the province,” Dr Niaz remarked.

He maintained that thousands of young people annually died in accidents and mishaps whose eyes, liver, kidneys, lungs, pancreas, heart and intestines could be used to save lives of many people facing organ failure.

The minister lamented that misconceptions in society were preventing people from donating their organs after deaths.

“After knowing the shortfall of organs we need for saving lives of people who require organ donations, we are going to organise an international conference in Karachi to launch cadaver or deceased donor organ donation programme in the province,” Dr Niaz stated and vowed to invite to the event health authorities from Iran, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries where deceased donor programmes had been successfully implemented.

To a query, he said heart and lungs of a person could only be donated by people who are dead but unfortunately, no heart or lungs transplants had been performed in Pakistan as people were hesitant to donate their organs after death due to misconceptions.

According to studies, the lack of deceased organ donation programmes and unwillingness of people to donate organs have contributed to an increased demand for living organ donation and patients of various diseases continue to rely on living donors.