Number of organ donors still small: Lee

Daily Express Kota Kinabalu: The number of people pledging to donate their organs in Malaysia is still small compared to other countries even though there is an increase in the awareness.

The Ministry of Health's Organ Donation Awareness Promotion Action Committee Chairman, Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye (pic) in a statement on Wednesday said Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai revealed this at the commemoration of World Kidney Day recently.

He said Liow stated that more than 15,000 Malaysians are waiting for organ transplants, as there are not enough donors.

Of the 15,078 patients seeking organ transplant in the country 15,055 are for kidneys, he had said, adding that the number of Malaysians requiring dialysis treatment owing to kidney failure had increased from 7,837 in 2001 to 22,932 in 2010.

Lee said statistics from National Transplant Resource showed that the number of organ donation pledgers, and awareness level is increasing.

"Yet, the number of pledgers is only about 0.6 per million population compared to Spain with 35 per million population and 5 per million population in Singapore.

"From data made available until February 2012, the number of registered organ pledgers is 190,041 since the campaign started in 1997.

For last year 28,769 persons pledged to donate their organs.

For Sabah alone the number of registered organ donation pledgers totalled 3,151 since 1997 which represented only 1.66 per cent of the total number of pledgers.

What is essential, Lee pointed out, is to continuously disseminate accurate information to increase public awareness and motivate the public of all races to donate organs.

In this respect, he said the process leading from donation to transplant is complex and is influenced by many factors, such as legislation, training, public attitude and cost.

"These factors also influence organ donation. The shortage of donated organs is the major challenge currently facing transplant programmes in Malaysia.

"Although there are 190,041 organ pledgers as at end of February 2012, the fact is that the actual number of cadaveric donors is small," he said.

The major impediment to developing an organ transplantation programme in the country is the lack of cadaveric donors, Lee pointed out.

Organ and tissue transplantation has provided the gift of life and enhanced the health of hundreds of thousands of health impaired and terminally ill people.

"Unfortunately the waiting list for organ donation grows longer and longer each day," he said.

For most forms of transplantation, the organs must come from cadaveric sources.

The lack of cadaveric donors, Lee suggested, is largely due to attitude, mindset, prejudices, misconception and even misconceived ideas of the public towards donating their organs upon death.

"There is no legal or religious obstacle and there is presently a consensus on brain death that is essential to cadaveric organ retrieval.

There are no major ethical issues in cadaveric transplantation programmes," he said.

Towards this end, he urged people to be more caring and donate for a good cause in the society.