TEHRAN — An official with the Ministry of Health has said that 66 heart transplants were carried out in the country during the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21).

Mahdi Shadnoush, head of the ministry’s management center for transplantation and special diseases, added that the transplants were carried out in six centers in Tehran and four centers in other cities, Fars news agency reported on Wednesday.

In the current year’s first six months, 90 percent of hearts that were considered as suitable were transplanted and only 9.5 percent of the suitable hearts were wasted, while the wastage rate of suitable hearts stood at 20 percent over the past two years.Over the last year (March 2017 - March 2018), he added, 144 heart transplants were carried out in Iran, and 119 transplants were conducted in its preceding year. 

In the current year’s first six months, he noted, 90 percent of hearts that were considered as suitable were transplanted and only 9.5 percent of the suitable hearts were wasted, while the wastage rate of suitable hearts stood at 20 percent over the past two years, said Shadnoush.  

In general, he added, among the patients who needed heart transplant, 67.8 percent are on the waiting list, 12.7 percent have died before receiving the transplant and 19.5 percent have already received the transplant.
“Currently, in Iran, 561 people are on the heart transplant waiting list and 116 of them are under 18,” he said. 
“We expect the universities of medical sciences to have their transplant centers operating on a 24-hour basis all year long,” he added.
SJ/MQ/MG