Nearly 1,000 people registered to donate their tissue and organs at a health festival in the northern province of Nam Định on Friday.– Photo nhandao.vn

NAM ĐỊNH  – Nearly 1,000 people registered to donate their tissue and organs at a health festival in the northern province of Nam Định on Friday. 
Addressing the festival, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyễn Việt Tiến said the supply of tissue and organs is still far below demand in Việt Nam, with more than 10,000 patients waiting for organ donors. 

Donating tissue and organs, particularly from brain-dead people, is a humanitarian action that needs to be promoted, he added. 
Organised by the Nam Định University of Nursing, National Coordination Centre for Organ Transplantation, and Việt Nam Red Cross Society’s Central Committee, among others, the event attracted more than 5,000 students from universities and colleges in the province.

Vice President of the Việt Nam Red Cross Society Central Committee Trần Quốc Hùng said anyone can donate, and the promotion of tissue and organ donation among youths is important to patients and the health sector. 

Việt Nam is in dire need of more organ donors. About 16,000 patients suffering from heart, kidney, liver and lung diseases and more than 6,000 blind people are awaiting eye donations, according to the Ministry of Health.

The country passed a law relating to organ donation in 2006 but the number of clinically-dead patients whose organs have been donated is extremely low.

Public awareness of organ donation remains limited, leading to a shortage of organ sources.

According to reports of Hà Nội-based Việt Đức Hospital, one of the 17 facilities qualified to perform organ transplants, there are about 1,000 brain-dead patients every year. However, only a few dozen donated their organs.

Statistics in 2016 showed that about 99.4 per cent of organ transplants in Việt Nam were done with organs from living people, with the remaining 0.6 per cent conducted with organs donated by brain-dead people. 
The first organ transplant involving a brain-dead donor was conducted at Chợ Rẫy Hospital in HCM City in 2010. Since then, similar surgeries have been carried out at Việt Đức Hospital, Military Medical Academy and Huế Central Hospital. — VNS