Kota Kinabalu: The Organ Donation Awareness Promotion Committee plans to set up a Sabah Transplant Resource Centre at QEH I soon to help increase the number of organ donors in Sabah.
State Health Department Director Dr Christina Rundi said there is still an unsatisfactory level of awareness among people in Sabah on organ donations.
She said this at a State-level organ donation promotion roadshow campaign at Suria Sabah, Saturday. Her speech read by Deputy Director Dr Adlan Suhimi Datuk Ahmad.
She said the department carried out roadshows in Sandakan, Tawau and Lahad Datu, which contributed to the increase in the State organ donation pledges to 780 from January to October this year, from only 337 pledges in the same period last year.
Speaking at the same event, Organ Donation Awareness Promotion Action Committee Chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said despite the increasing pledges and improving awareness, the actual number of cadaveric donors is still small.
He said the National Transplant Resource Centre (NTRC) statistics showed there are 207,314 registered organ pledges until October this year, since the campaign started in 1997, with 17,131 people pledging for the purpose this year.
"But the fact is that the actual number of cadaveric donors is smallÉthe total number of actual donors to date is just 387 since the organ transplantation programme started in 1976," he said.
"The major impediment to developing an organ transplantation programme in the country is the lack of cadaveric donors. For most forms of transplantation, the organs must come from cadaveric sources," he added.
He said the lack of cadaveric donors 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 which is essential to cadaveric organ retrieval.
There are no major ethical issues in cadaveric transplantation programmes," he said.
"What is essential is to continuously disseminate accurate information and motivate the public of all races to donate organs."
Lee said anyone can be an organ donor except those having infectious diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis B and C. When the death is confirmed, a screening will be done by doctors to determine which organ and tissues are functioning well and can be transplanted.
The commonly transplanted organs are heart, liver, lungs and kidneys, while for tissues are heart valves, eyes, bone and skin.
Potential organ donors presently represent only about 0.7 per cent of Malaysian population.
"A limited supply of organs continues to hinder organ transplantation around the world and Malaysia is no exception. A significant percentage of potential organ donors are lost either to medical failure, or through an inability to obtain consent for donation," 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 this country."
Lee pledged to make it his mission target to have organ donation as part of Malaysian culture in the effort to increase the number of actual donors in the country.
Accompanied by Dr Adlan and the others, Lee also flagged off about 400 nursing students to promote and sign up new organ donation pledgers.
Regional Transplant and Procurement Sabah Manager Dr Cheah Phee Kheng, who was also there, said they managed to sign up 950 new organ donation pledgers, which increased the number of pledgers in the State to 2110.
"This is a record-breaking number for us as well," he said. Queen Elizabeth Hospital I Anaesthesia Department Head Dr Lily Ng, and Kota Kinabalu Nursing College Director Shariffah Nicholas, among others, were also present.
0 comments:
Post a Comment