Doctors can play a decisive role in creating awareness
In a major boost to organ transplantation in country, the Union Government has taken many positive decisions in the latest organ transplant policy recently announced by them. The Government has removed the below 65 years compulsion for recipient of organ transplant , removed the mandatory requirement of domicile certificate in a state for transplantation and removed the registration fees for the recipients. India sees 17,000 to 18,000 solid- organ transplant every year and is third in the world in terms of organ transplant only behind USA and China. Though the step taken by the Government are a welcome step but the organ transplant data suggests that still we are way behind of the demand for organ transplant in the country.
There is a wide gap between patients who need transplants and the organs that are available in India. An estimated around 1.8 lakh persons suffer from renal failure every year, however the number of renal transplants done is around 10000 only. About 25-30 thousand liver transplants are needed annually in India but only about one thousand five hundred are being performed. Similarly about 50000 persons suffer from Heart failures annually but only about 10 to 15 heart transplants are performed every year in India. In case of Cornea, about 25000 transplants are done every year against a requirement of 1 lakh.
Another important fact is that only 25% of the organ donation are from the deceased. The remaining 75% organ donation are by the relatives of the patient. Various issue plague the Cadaverorgan donation but the prime reason is the poor awareness and attitude towards organ donation which translates into poor cadaver organ donation rate. The role of doctors, especially the General Practitioners (GP) becomes extremely important to overcome the lack of awareness of organ transplantation. Doctors regularly interact with their patients and they can give a comprehensive picture of organ donation to their patient. Doctors can put forth the appropriate prospective of organ transplantation before their patients and promote organ transplantation. Also, they can put posters and other promotional material of organ transplantation in clinic. The doctors can also take up campaign along with the social workers of their locality to promote awareness of organ donation. The doctors can bring a massive change in the cadaver organ donation by chalking out their own awareness program which in turn will be their contribution to the society, nation and the human race as a whole.
Dr. Bhushan Kedari
Editor