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SANDAKAN: According to the Ministry of Health’s statistics, the country has carried out 2,149 organ transfers involving 665 donors from 1970 to 2017. 

A total of 27 donors were also registered in 2018.

Sandakan MP Vivian Wong Shir Yee said statistics from the National Transplant Resource Centre (PSTN), Kuala Lumpur Hospital, showed that 424,580 people had pledged to be organ donors during the 21 years of establishment of the PSTN.

For 2018, 6,000 new pledgers were recorded.

“This number is among the lowest in the whole world,” she said.

“What is sad about this is that this figure shows a 20 per cent decrease over the previous year, putting our country at the lowest level in the world; less than one per cent per million people (PMP) compared to Spain with a 40-donor ratio.” 

She said the country was still lagging behind in Asia compared to Thailand and Singapore as they had achieved organ donation statistics of 3.27 PMP.

In addition, statistics showed that some 21,018 patients, especially those with kidney disease, had to wait at least 20 years to undergo a transplant at a government hospital.

She said this when opening the Organ Donation Awareness Week 2019 programme at Mydin Sandakan Supermarket, here, Sunday. The text of her speech was delivered by Sandakan Parliamentary Liaison Officer, Amsi Liew.

The Organ Donor Awareness Week (MKPO) is an annual event held every October and is an initiative of the Ministry of Health of Malaysia to honour organ donors and pledgers.

At the same time, it also aims to raise awareness among the public about the importance of donating organs.

Organ or tissue donation is the process of donating some organ or tissue from our body for the purpose of transferring or transplanting to another person in need because of the failure or damage of the organ or tissue.

Organ donation usually involves organs such as the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. Tissue donations include heart valves, eyes (cornea), bones and skin.

Meanwhile, Vivian said she was informed that up to 2017, 17,401 people had pledged to be organ donors in Sabah.

However, he said, as of April 2019, there were 20,394 people still awaiting organ transplants.

Among them were 20,376 cases involving the kidney, five cases involving the liver, seven cases involving the heart, three cases involving the lungs and three cases involving the liver and lungs.

“These statistics clearly show that the ratio of donors to those waiting to receive organ donations is still low.” 

He added that a report made by Daily News on Jan 7, 2019 stated that in Spain, the rate of receiving a donor if unsuccessful is two days.

This means that if a person fails to undergo an organ transplant, the patient will still be able to get an organ within two days to save the life of the patient.

In the meantime, Vivian said, from the information he received, some of the people of the country were still sceptical about the issue of organ donation.

“This is something that is inevitable. But I think that with activities like Organ Donor Awareness Week like this, it can do a lot to help resolve the issues that come to our mind.

“In turn, it may increase our understanding of the issue of organ donation, or it may encourage us to become a pledger.”