Now is the time to promote transplants

NST: KUALA LUMPUR: Kidney (renal) transplants have been steadily dropping.
The poor response by Malaysians to donate the organs of their brain-dead relatives is the cause of the drop, said the 14th report of the Malaysian Dialysis and Transplant Registry 2006.
The report talks of moves to revitalise transplants, including the formulation of a National Organ and Tissue Transplantation policy.
The proposed setting up of a transplant unit in the Health Ministry would catalyse the transplant process and the creation of a budget specific for transplants.
Datuk Dr Rozina Ghazalli and Datuk Dr Zaki Morad Mohd Zaher, the chairperson and co-chairperson of the registry, called on nephrologists to play a more active role to promote transplants.
They said the clampdown by Chinese authorities on commercial cadaveric transplants in hospitals in China should be taken as an opportunity to promote kidney transplants.
According to the registry, there are now almost 15,000 people on dialysis.
Taking into account all those who underwent transplants before 1997 and now, there were 1,725 functioning transplants until December last year.
The number of deaths of dialysis patients last year was 1,575 while 164 died while on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD).
States with the highest number of people on dialysis treatment were Penang, Malacca, Johor, Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Kuala Lumpur.
The nation has 412 haemodialysis centres and 31 CAPD centres for dialysis.
The Health Ministry provided dialysis to 33.7 per cent of the patients in the country, NGOs 31.1 per cent and the private sector 32.8 per cent.