Vietnam Aims to Expand Organ Donation Network to 600 Hospitals: Official
Vietnam has targeted to expand its organ donation network to 600 hospitals with potential brain-dead donors in a bid to boost transplant sources, said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dong Van He, director of the National Coordination Center for Organ Transplantation and deputy director of Viet Duc Hospital.
The organ and tissue donation network in Vietnam now includes 68 hospitals, with 24 in the northern region, 29 in the southern region, and the remainder in the central region, Dr. He said, rating that the network has not yet achieved the desired efficiency.
He highlighted that Vietnam is the only ASEAN country to perform over 1,000 transplants annually. However, the number of brain-dead donors is still low compared to global standards. Currently, 94% of donated organs in Vietnam come from living donors, with only 6% from brain-dead donors. In contrast, developed countries see 40%-90% of their donated organs coming from brain-dead donors.
In the first half of this year, there were 10 cases of organ donation from brain-dead donors, compared to 16 cases in 2023.