Organ Donation Needs To Become Part of Public Conversations: NIMS Expert

Hyderabad: Organ donation needs to be brought into public conversation and families and communities should be encouraged to discuss it to bridge the gap between the demand for organs and their availability, said Dr Sree Bhushan Raju, professor and head of nephrology at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (Nims).

While medical science has advanced in transplantation procedures and medicines, he said the availability of organs ultimately determines how many patients awaiting transplantation can receive treatment, he said. Dr Raju, heads of the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO), was seaking at a workshop, ‘Myths and Facts on Organ Donation’, organised by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), here to mark World Organ Donation Day.

Explaining transplantation, Dr Raju said the immune system would naturally recognize a transplanted organ as foreign and attempt to reject it. Medicines can control this response, but doctors have to maintain a balance between preventing rejection and protecting recipients from infections. He also highlighted swap transplantation as an option for patients whose willing family donors are medically incompatible. Under the appropriate legal and medical framework, compatible donor-recipient pairs can be matched for transplantation.

Opening the workshop, Dr Manas Krishnakanth, joint director, PIB-Hyderabad, said there was a significant gap between the demand for organ transplants and the availability of donor organs in the country. He said national and state transplant organisations play a role in coordinating and promoting organ donation and transplantation.