'Recycle your organs, save lives, stop trafficking'

'Recycle your organs, save lives, stop trafficking'

Written by Gemma Bagayaua Mendoza
Tuesday, 30 June 2009

Karen May Abu was an eager young college student at the University of the Philippines when she learned that she had lupus.

It started when friends noticed that her face was inflamed. “I was experiencing edema.” At the University infirmary, the doctor told her that her kidney functions were down to 70 percent. It meant only one thing. At 17, when the world was supposed to be her oyster, Karen would have to go through dialysis. “I became dependent on a machine.”

But Karen is among the lucky ones. After years of searching, Karen finally found a matching organ donor. Two weeks ago she had a successful transplant.

Many others are not so lucky. Every year, 5000 Filipinos who develop end-stage renal disease are found to be suitable transplant candidates. However, only 10 percent of them are actually transplanted locally.

And the issue is not lack of expertise on the part of local transplant surgeons. The bigger problem is that there are not enough organs available for transplant.

About 10 to 20 percent of transplant candidates die while waiting for new kidneys.

Many patients, in desperation, rely on "living donors" who want to sell their body parts to earn quick cash. After all, in a country where more than half of the population is living in poverty, there is no shortage of organ sellers. Overwhelming demand for organs has led to exploitation and abuse due to organ trafficking.

A local transplant surgeon, however, is saying it does not have to remain this way. If everyone does his part, he says, the country can easily lick the organ insufficiency and prevent abuses committed by the traffickers in the process.

"Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has a population of only 6 million and yet they get 8 to 10 donor offers everyday and 250 organs every month," says Angel Amante, transplant surgeon at the Capitol Medical Center, told reporters Tuesday at the launch of a new group of medical practitioners who are seeking to change the way people view organ donation.

"If a small state like Pennsylvania can do it, then what more a country like the Philippines which in Metro Manila alone already has a population of more than 30 million? Shortage should not be a problem if only a proper system is in place."
Cadaver Donations

A major reason behind the organ shortage is the country’s anemic system of collecting organs from cadaver donors or donors who are already brain dead.

Just how anemic it is, is shown by the fact that, according to the Philippine Renal Disease Registry, only roughly 5 percent of kidneys transplanted in the Philippines come from cadaver donors. The rest come from either living-related or living non-related donors. In fact, Amante says, the country only averaged about 15 deceased organ donors each year from 1999 to 2007.

This is a pity, he said, considering that the leading causes of mortality in the country are strokes and vehicular accidents. Had the systems been in place, he said, this would have been a rich source of cadaver donations.

But then again, the systems are not in place. To harvest those organs, the country needs effective and efficient organ procurement organizations that will retrieve, preserve, transport and systematically allocate organs to potential recipients waiting for organ transplantation, according to Amante.

ImageAt present, the only facility that collects organs from brain dead patients is the National Kidney and Transplant Institute’s Human Organ Preservation Effort (Hope) Foundation.

There is also no sustained information campaign on the value of donating as well as on how one can donate. For instance, few people notice that the back portion of their driver’s license card is actually a donation form. Fewer individuals actually tick the box.
A different type of IPOD

To address this void, Amante and his fellow doctors initiated IPOD or the Integrated Program on Organ Donation, a non-stock, non-profit and non-government organ retrieval service provider that intends to follow organ donation and allocation based on currently accepted international standards and ethics.

IPOD aims to yield at least 90 deceased donors for the fiscal year 2009 to 2010, eventually increasing the number of deceased donors to 300 per year in 5 years. The organization also aspires to enhance public awareness and acceptance of deceased organ donation.

“We have the people, the technology, the medicine and the facilities to do it. The only thing missing in the puzzle are OPOs [Organ Procurement Organizations], and it is through IPOD that we plan to fill this void,” shares Dr. Amante. “Eventually, we hope not only to make the Philippines at par with internationally accepted standards of organ donation and transplantation; but to ensure there’s a reliable source of organs for every Filipino.”

Amante stresses that the creation of IPOD doesn’t mean that they’re downplaying governmental efforts in organ transplantation. “The government needs their partners in the private sector to help them out. We have the same goal and it wouldn’t hurt to have more people fighting for it. IPOD and its team of specialists actually serve to complement the government.” (abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak)

http://newsbreak.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6367&Itemid=88889458