Scene at the health festival (Photo: dantri.vn) Nam Dinh (VNA) – Nearly 1,000 people registered to donate their tissue and organsat a health festival that took place in the northern province of Nam Dinh onNovember 17.
Jointly organisedby the Nam Dinh University of Nursing, National Coordination Centre for Organ Transplantation,and Vietnam Red Cross Society’s Central Committee, among others, the eventattracted more than 5,000 students from universities and colleges in the province.
Addressing thefestival, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Viet Tien said the supply of tissueand organs is still far below demand in Vietnam, with over 10,000 organ failurepatients waiting for donors.
Donating tissueand organs, particularly from brain-dead people, is a humanitarian action thatneeds to be promoted, he added.
Vice Presidentof the Vietnam Red Cross Society Central Committee Tran Quoc Hung said anyonecan take part in the activity, and the promotion of tissue and organ donationamong youths is important to patients and the health sector.
Vietnam passed alaw relating to organ donation in 2006. However, the number of clinically-deadpatients whose organs have been donated is extremely low. Statistics in 2016showed that about 99.4 percent of the organ transplants in Vietnam were donewith organs donated by living people, while the remaining 0.6 percent wasconducted with organs donated by brain-dead people.
The first organtransplant involving a brain-dead donor was conducted at Cho Ray Hospital inHCM City in 2010. Since then, similar surgeries have been carried out at VietDuc Hospital, Military Medical Academy and Hue Central Hospital. -VNA
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