TEHRAN — More than 3,300 transplants were performed in Iran over the last Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2015- March 19, 2016), the director for transplant management department of Health Ministry has said.

“Iran is in quite a good situation regarding the transplants surgeries,” Mohammad Kazemeini told ISNA news agency.

Some 2,500 of the surgeries are pertaining to kidney transplants, Kazemeini said, adding, 716 liver and 102 heart transplant surgeries were performed over the same period.

57 percent of kidney donors were brain dead, he noted, “We are planning on increasing the number of the transplants from the brain dead patients as in addition to kidney we can procure other organs as well.”

Last year some 800 patients were diagnosed with brain death and they donated 2,300 organs of which 1,400 were kidneys, he added.

Currently, he said, there exist 29 kidney transplant centers as well as seven centers for liver, eight for heart and two for lung transplant.

He further mentioned the considerable costs of transplant surgeries including the equipment, the treatment process and the medications which are mostly provided by the government.

Inquired about insurance companies’ share in transplant surgeries Kazemeini noted that these companies only offer coverage for kidney transplants and that the rest of the transplant surgeries are covered by the Health Ministry.

MQ/MG