By The Nation
Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul signed a memorandum of understanding with the Thai Red Cross Society to promote public awareness about organ donation and transplants.
There are 12 organ donation centres in Thailand at present.
Anutin said not only do organ and eye transplants reduce the rate of mortality and disability, they also improve patients’ quality of life. Yet, he said, there is a severe scarcity of organ donors.
At present, some 6,245 patients are waiting for organ transplants and 12,964 for eye transplants. However, only 500 to 700 organ and 700 to 800 cornea transplants are likely to take place on a yearly basis. Hence, the minister is aiming to solve this problem by opening an organ-donation centre in every hospital, with a kidney and eye-transplant team on standby.
He said he also wants more people to become organ donors.
“After flying donors all over the country for five years, I witnessed more than 26 successful transplants as well as a 100 per cent survival rate among donors. Hence, I want related state agencies to provide more information to wipe out the old superstition that organ donors will be disabled in their next life. It is absolutely not possible for an organ donor to be reborn handicapped, because they have made huge merit in this life,” Anutin said.