TEHRAN – In the first six months of this year (which began on March 21), 530 organs were donated in the country, indicating 16.5% growth compared to the same period last year, the deputy health minister has said.

Over the aforementioned period, 1,726 organ transplants were performed in the country, which compared to the same period last year, when 1,183 organ transplants were carried out, shows a growth of more than 45 percent, ISNA quoted Saeed Karimi as saying on Sunday.

Referring to the air transport of organs, he said that over the first six months, 12 cases of organs have been airlifted. Based on this, we have seen a 50 percent increase in the index of air transfer of transplanted organs this year compared to the previous year.

In July, Karimi announced that organ donation has increased by 30 percent over the past month (June 22-July 22) compared to the same period last year.

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.

In Iran, about 5,000 to 8,000 people die each year from brain death, half of whom, or about 3,000, can donate organs. However, just one-third of families are satisfied with organ donation.

However, 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.

Considering that 7,000 transplant recipients are buried annually due to family dissatisfaction and 3,000 needy patients die, on the other hand, it can be considered that only half of the buried organs could save the lives of all.

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 still is a serious problem in the world.

Iran tops Asian countries in organ donation

Mehdi Shadnoush, 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. Although Iran ranks 26 in organ donation in the world.

According to the figures revealed by the International Registry in Organ Donation and Transplantation (IRODaT), Spain leads the world in organ donation.

FB/MG