Vice President calls to step up campaign for organ donation
On Friday, October 5, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu said that demand of organs is rising due to increasing number of end organ failures of kidney, liver, heart, lung and pancreas and called to step up the organ donation campaign in a big way to meet the increasing demand.
Vice President was addressing the 29th annual conference of the Indian Society of Organ Transplant in Hyderabad. Naidu said that there huge requirement of donated organs in country but very few people are getting the organs.
Vice President said, “Of the 85,000 liver failure patients on wait list annually, less than 3% get the organ. Similarly, while two lakhs kidney failure patients registered for organ transplantation, only 8000 get the kidney. And barely 1% get heart /lung among the thousands on wait list”.
Similarly, while two lakhs kidney failure patients registered for organ transplantation, only 8000 get the kidney. And barely 1% get heart /lung amongst the thousands on waitlist. #OrganDonation #OrganTransplant pic.twitter.com/dVgI6RLIwh
— VicePresidentOfIndia (@VPSecretariat) October 5, 2018
He said that India has a very low rate of organ donation in comparison to developed countries and cited the increasing gap in organ failure and organ donation is because of cultural beliefs, traditions and ritual practices.
He said, “Though there is a leap in cadaveric organ donations over the last 4-5 years, yet the demand-supply remains hugely unmet with. This is because of low rates of organ donation in India at 0.8 /million population, when smaller countries like Spain and Croatia are performing at 36/million population and 32/million population respectively”.
He added, “The significant gap in increasing end organ failures and the organ donations is because of cultural beliefs, traditions and ritual practices”.
He asked people to step up the organ donation campaign in a big way so that we can meet the demand. He said, “India’s core philosophy is share and care and we need to step up the campaign for organs donation in a big way. India is known for unity in diversity and altruism in all the cultures and we need to increase the donation rates to meet the demand of organs for organ transplantation”.
He urged doctors, medical service and care providers to make the transplantation therapy affordable for those who needed it.
Vice President also urged people to modify the lifestyle that includes suitable diet, physical exercise and yoga, and aware people about dangers of fast food, consumption of alcohol and Tobacco. He said, precaution is better that cure, with a better lifestyle, diseases can be prevented.
