Setback for organ transplant project
By Wang Qingchu |
February 26, 2011, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA'S national organ donation system has hit a major setback in east China's Nanjing City.
None of Nanjing residents has donated organs after death since the program was started last March.
A lack of awareness and an incomplete network between donors and receivers had become the largest obstacles in the city's efforts to encourage post-death donations, Yangtze Evening News reported yesterday.
One woman had agreed to donate her organs after her death, but her parents had instead taken her body back to their hometown for cremation, the newspaper quoted local officials as saying.
Many Chinese people couldn't accept the idea of donating organs. Other traditional concepts, including one that the body should be complete when cremated, all deterred people from making donations after death, said Ding Yitao, director of the Nanjing Gulou Hospital.
Experts called for a reward system to attract donors, including one suggestion of free blood transfusions for people whose relatives have donated their organs.
Local officials told the newspaper that many hospitals weren't able to retrieve, store and transplant organs timely.
Once a donor dies, a special medical team has to move the organs as soon as possible to reduce damage.
But there were only five hospitals in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, which had such teams, Liu Wenhua, an official with Nanjing Red Cross, told the newspaper.
Ten provinces and cities, including Shanghai, were named as venues for pilot organ donation projects to be operated by the Red Cross Society of China, with assistance from the Ministry of Health, in March last year.
Currently nearly 1.5 million people in China need organ transplants each year, while fewer than 10,000 find donors.
The Shanghai People's Congress has included an amendment to allow people to donate their organs for transplant after death into the city's 10-year-old rules in this year's agenda.
At present, people only can donate their corneas for transplants, with the rest of the body used for medical research and teaching.
None of Nanjing residents has donated organs after death since the program was started last March.
A lack of awareness and an incomplete network between donors and receivers had become the largest obstacles in the city's efforts to encourage post-death donations, Yangtze Evening News reported yesterday.
One woman had agreed to donate her organs after her death, but her parents had instead taken her body back to their hometown for cremation, the newspaper quoted local officials as saying.
Many Chinese people couldn't accept the idea of donating organs. Other traditional concepts, including one that the body should be complete when cremated, all deterred people from making donations after death, said Ding Yitao, director of the Nanjing Gulou Hospital.
Experts called for a reward system to attract donors, including one suggestion of free blood transfusions for people whose relatives have donated their organs.
Local officials told the newspaper that many hospitals weren't able to retrieve, store and transplant organs timely.
Once a donor dies, a special medical team has to move the organs as soon as possible to reduce damage.
But there were only five hospitals in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, which had such teams, Liu Wenhua, an official with Nanjing Red Cross, told the newspaper.
Ten provinces and cities, including Shanghai, were named as venues for pilot organ donation projects to be operated by the Red Cross Society of China, with assistance from the Ministry of Health, in March last year.
Currently nearly 1.5 million people in China need organ transplants each year, while fewer than 10,000 find donors.
The Shanghai People's Congress has included an amendment to allow people to donate their organs for transplant after death into the city's 10-year-old rules in this year's agenda.
At present, people only can donate their corneas for transplants, with the rest of the body used for medical research and teaching.
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