Vietnam Health Minister Calls for Organ Donation, 1st Politician to Sign Up

Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien has become the first Vietnamese politician in the country to sign up for organ donation after death as she wants to encourage others to do the same, state media reported on October 27. Minister Tien spoke to the media on the sidelines of the National Assembly meeting on Oct 27 that she registered to donate organs in 2013. More than 16,000 patients with heart, kidney, liver and lung diseases and more than 6,000 blind people in Vietnam are waiting “desperately” for donors, she added. “Many patients have died during the wait as the number of donors is very small,” the minister said. Vietnam has 14 institutions capable of conducting complicated organ transplants at a low cost, she noted, adding that the country has mastered the technology, but over the past two decades, it has only received enough organ donations to perform more than 1,100 kidney transplants, 48 liver transplants, 13 heart transplants, more than 1,400 corneal transplants and one pancreas transplant. (nld.com.vn Oct 27, info.net Oct 27, Vietnamnet.vn Oct 26)