Medical advocates across the country are now pushing for 1m more transplant with increasing number of patients seeking procedure. Medical advocates across the United States have launched a new push for 1m more organ transplants, after the milestone figure of the 1 millionth transplant in the US was met at the end of last week.
Since the first kidney transplant was performed in 1954, the US has surpassed over 1m transplants. Nevertheless, with more patients seeking the procedure than ever before, the demand for organ donors has grown significantly. As a result, organ transplant advocates have launched a new campaign for another million transplants to be performed in the coming years. A record-breaking 41,356 transplants were performed in 2021, the Associated Press reported. Across the country, over 400,000 people are currently living with functioning transplanted organs, United Network for Sharing Organs (UNOS) said on Friday. However, 105,000 people are still on the national waiting list as they wait for new organs such as kidneys, livers and hearts. In addition, another 17 people die daily while waiting, according to the Associated Press. Currently, kidneys are the highest in demand across the country. Despite the high demand, a report released earlier this year by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found a “significant non-use of donated organs” along with other disparities.
Approximately one in five kidneys from deceased donors are not used. Additionally, Black Americans are three times more likely to suffer from kidney failure compared to white Americans. They are also “substantially less likely” to be placed on waiting lists or even eventually receive an organ.Moreover, a Senate finance committee investigation discovered additional problems such as testing failures between 2008 and 2015 which led to 249 transplant recipients developing diseases from donated organs, 70 of whom died, the Associated Press reports. In other instances, organs that were transported from one hospital to another were lost in transit or delayed so long they were no longer usable. Congress has lambasted UNOS for its failure to enforce a centralized logistical system. “This is sitting on your hands while people die,” Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren told the organization’s chief executive. Warren and other senators have called for UNOS to be replaced. UNOS has in the recent years been making attempts to alleviate logistical obstacles. It ordered a change in the ways organs are distributed, allowing kidneys to be transported to sicker patients who are further away instead of being given first to hospitals that are closer to where they are donated. In turn, kidney transplants increased 16% last year – and by 23% among Black patients.
Source: This news is originally published by theguardian