5L die each year due to lack of organs: Health ministry

Mumbai: Around five lakh persons die every year in India due to non-availability of organs, according to the Union health ministry.

The health ministry data has also revealed that around 2,00,000 people die due to liver disease, and 50,000 die of heart disease in a  year in India.

Moreover, 1,50,000 people are waiting for a kidney transplant every year, but only about 5,000 get the organs. The health ministry, through various campaigns, is spreading awareness and has been urging people to donate the organs of their relatives, who are declared as brain dead.

According to the Zonal Transplant Coordina-tion Committee (ZTCC), 34 patients are still waiting for a heart, 3,238 for kidney, 240 for liver and 10 for lungs in the city.

There were 33 cadaver donors, 40 kidney recipients, 29 liver recipients, 20 heart recipients and one lung recipient since January till the date.

Talking to The Asian Age, Dr S.K. Mathur, vice president of the Zonal Transplant Coordination Comm-ittee (ZTCC) said, “There are high numbers of road and rail accidents, which can yield a good number of potential donors every day. But their families are not even approached by the counsellors.”

A complete lack of awareness about cadaver donations and a shamelessly callous attitude of the hospitals authorised to harvest organs of brain-dead patients have been blamed for to non-availability of organs.

This year, out of the total 33 cadaver donations, only three were in civic-run hospitals.