Pakistan: Regulatory authority plans to curb illegal organ transplants

[Clark]

https://www.dawn.com/news/1915958/regulatory-authority-plans-to-curb-illegal-organ-transplants

Regulatory authority plans to curb illegal organ transplants

PESHAWAR: Medical Transplant Regulatory Authority has planned to take steps to ensure availability of legal organs donation to needy people and curb illegal transplants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Officials said that a meeting held recently expressed concerns over lack of organ donation culture among people due to which patients looked towards unlawful practices that caused health issues to donors as well recipients.

MTRA, a government body for medical transplants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has made strides not only in curbing illegal organ transplants but also in enabling organ donation. However, measures are still needed to ensure donation of organs by people.

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is currently investigating 12 cases of illegal renal transplants in the province.

Such incidents can be controlled only when people start donating organs in lawful manners.

Health department established MTRA in 2022 to regulate, monitor and control all human transplants in the light of the 2014 MTRA Act, which seeks to curb illegal transplants and oversee hospitals. However, officials said that the number of donations was still far lesser than the required number and as a result people opted for illegal donations.

"Patients are charged exorbitantly by untrained doctors for such procedures. MTRA has given permission to well-equipped and well-staffed hospitals to carry out transplants for which we need donations. The new law has led to stoppage of illegal transplants but we need to promote good medical practices that are possible through organ donation," they said.

Dr Nabi Jan Afridi, focal person to health adviser, told Dawn that MTRA was tasked to find ways and means to ensure that people started donating organs and discourage illegal practices.

"In Iran and some other countries, government pays certain amount to donors due to which the illicit trade has been eliminated. Presently, we have all facilities for transplants but the problem is non-availability of donors and people bank on family donors only," he said.

He said that government was providing free transplant services to people and so far 170 patients had undergone renal and 65 liver transplants on Sehat Card Plus. "All these cases have been done legally due to which patients have been benefitted. Most of the renal transplants have been conducted by Prof Asif Malik, the chairman of MTRA in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa," he added.

Dr Nabi Jan said that MTRA was tasked to simplify and streamline the process of human organ transplantation, making it more accessible and understandable to people. "One of the key points is whether to make family donor consent mandatory or to develop clear protocols for non-family donors," he said.

He said that government would constitute a committee to review all existing health laws and regulations and identify legal gaps to propose necessary amendments for improving the regulatory framework.

"We are also establishing the province's first-ever Transplant Tower where renal, bone marrow and liver transplants will take place but we need to promote organ donations," said Dr Nabi Jan.

Other experts said that a living donor, not younger than 18, might voluntarily donate any organ to any other living close blood relative and legally related persons including parents, siblings, sons, daughters and spouses for treatment under the law but the problem was matching of the organs that was not easy.

Presently, relevant committees conduct extensive research to trace the relations between donors and recipients through data of National Database and Registration Authority.

Experts said that many hospitals were authorised by MTRA to conduct renal and corneal transplants but the main problem was a lack of a culture of organ donation.

They said that during the last few years, scores of patients underwent corneal transplants only because those were sent by overseas Pakistani doctors.

They said that there were other options too including deceased-donor programmes under which organs were retrieved from the people dying at hospitals.