Experts urge organ distribution changes
Print Edition
CHINA suffers from a shortage of livers for children needing transplants, experts told the China Pediatric Transplantation Congress in Shanghai at the weekend.
One partial remedy, they said, would be changes to the country’s organ distribution scheme.
China has a policy that patients in the region where organs are donated have priority. But that can lead to a waste of donated organs, the congress heard, or organs not going to the most appropriate patient.
“China’s current policy doesn’t give enough consideration to child patients needing organ transplants. In some developed counties like the UK, livers from donors below 40 years old must be split and the smaller part used to help children, while there is no such policy in China,” said Dr Xia Qiang, vice president of Shanghai’s Renji Hospital.
“On the contrary, donated organs from children in China haven’t been used appropriately and sometimes were wasted or used improperly on adult patients. We must set up certain rules to ensure that child patients can receive donated organs in time and reasonably.”
There are up to 5,000 Chinese children needing liver transplants every year, the congress heard, while only about 500 operations are conducted due to a lack of organs. About 70 to 80 percent of transplants are made possible through donations from parents.
The low rate of donations, the distribution system and some parents’ inability to donate part of their livers for medical reasons are the major reasons for the small number of transplants, the congress heard.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
