Bahrain Urges Youth to Donate Kidneys to Close Relatives

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Bahrain Urges Youth to Donate Kidneys to Close Relatives
Suad Hamada

28 October 2009
MANAMA — Young individuals with no health complications have been urged to come forward to donate kidneys to their close relatives.

Organ Transplant Surgeon, Dr Sadiq Abdullah, said in a statement that although the number of kidney donors in the country has relatively increased since last month, but more need to follow such approach to save many lives.

He said that last week two young Bahrainis in their twenties donated their kidneys as the first one gave it to his mother, while the second donated it for his sister.

“We want the donors to increase. In November and December we shall be carrying out more kidney transplants,” the doctor said.

“The successful rate of our transplants is a good sign. The health minister is closely following all our developments and is keen to further boost the practice of organ donation,” the
doctor said.

The dialysis treatment is free of cost for Bahrainis but non-Bahrainis have to pay. In kidney transplants organs are received from two main sources based on the Bahraini law. These are cadaver and live donors.

Health officials are calling for an urgent need to set up an organ transplant centre in the country with the growing demand by patients.

Doctors have urged authorities to update legislation to ease the process of obtaining organs from brain
dead patients.

Several Bahraini travel to Philippines, Egypt and other countries for kidney transplants which officials say are not according to international standards and in most cases the recipients get infected after the operation.


shamada@khaleejtimes.ae

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