TEHRAN –Katayoun Najafizadeh, the director of the Iranian Organ Donation Association, has received the Unsung Hero Award of Women in Transplantation Awards at the 30th International Congress of The Transplantation Society (TTS 2024) which took place in Istanbul from September 22 to 25.

The award is presented to a woman who has had an extraordinary impact on Transplantation through community services volunteering, mentorship, or other community based activities. 

The International society for  Organ Donation and Procurement (ISODP) is responsible for developing clinical guidelines and practices, promoting educational programs, and ethical standards for clinical care and scientific research, IRNA reported.

Each year, a different country will host the congress to share latest achievements and expertise in donation and transplantation.

In Iran, some 25,000 people are on transplant waiting list and each ten minute a new person is added to the list.

Rise in organ donation

The number of organ donors in Iran increased from 7.8 per million population (PMP) in the year 1399 (March 2020-March 2021) to 12.2 in the year 1401 (March 2022-March 2023).

“In 1399, the number of organ donations in the country was 645, which reached 928 in 1400 and increased to 1,016 in 1401,” Amir-Hesam Alirezaei, the head of the Health Ministry’s Center for Transplantation and Disease Management, said.

“Currently, 30 kidney transplant centers, 11 liver transplant centers, 3 lung transplant centers, 4 pancreas transplant centers, 18 bone marrow transplant centers, 22 procurement centers, and 35 transplant identification centers are active in the country,” he explained.

With 40,095 cases, kidney transplant has had the highest number of transplants in the country, he noted.

Between 5,000 and 8,000 brain deaths occur annually in the country, he said, adding that 2,500 to 4,000 cases of brain deaths are eligible for organ transplantation, and there are 18,000 patients in need of receiving organs in the country, and more than 1,410 cases of organ donation were done last year, he concluded.

According to the Iranian Society of Organ Donation, there are two types of death in the medical world; Heart death (common death), which accounts for 99 percent of deaths worldwide, and brain death, which accounts for one percent of deaths.

There are over 25,000 patients in need of transplants on the waiting lists for various organs, but unfortunately, 7 to 10 of them die every day due to the lack of a transplanted organ, accounting for over 3,000 a year.

Organ donation is an altruistic decision that can be made by family members after brain death. Although many organizations and medical centers have implemented various interventions and training courses to increase satisfaction with organ donation, a lack of organs for donation is still a serious problem in the world.

Iran tops Asian countries in organ donation

Mehdi Shadnoush, former head of the Health Ministry’s Center for Transplantation and Disease Management, announced in June 2020 that Iran is ranked first for organ donation among Asian countries.

“The country’s organ donation rate is 14.34 per one million people,” he noted.

In February 2019, Shadnoush said that the organ donation rate has increased by 60 times over the past 18 years, while Iran ranked 26 in organ donation in the world.

MT/MG