Despite the progress made over the past two decades, access to transplantation is not equitable among member countries, resolution notes
Photo for representation: iStock
At the 77th World Health Assembly, member states approved a draft resolution on improving organ transplantation availability, including human cells and tissues.
The resolution tasked countries with developing a global strategy to be presented for adoption in 2026. It also encouraged the establishment of a World Donor Day to raise public awareness and donations.
The resolution noted that despite the progress made over the past two decades, access to transplantation is not equitable among member countries, as the problem persists across developing and developed countries.
The draft urged member states to increase in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation, “the availability of human cells, tissues and organs for transplantation with special attention to developing deceased donation to its maximum therapeutic potential.”
It also emphasised on encouraging donation after the neurological determination of death and, where appropriate, donation after the circulatory determination of death.
The Member States committed to developing a strategy to integrate organ transplantation into healthcare systems to consider deceased donation routinely. They also pledged to prevent the exploitation of living donors’ exploitation, with adequate follow-up.
The resolution urged the director-general to establish an expert committee under the Regulations for Expert Advisory Panels and Committees, to help the Secretariat in developing the proposed global strategy and its implementation.
According to the Union health ministry’s data, organ donation increased to 16,041 in 2022 from 4,990 in 2013, illustrating the country’s poor donation record. The chairperson of the urology renal transplant and robotics department at Max Super Speciality Hospital, Anant Kumar, told The Hindu that India is not able to meet its kidney transplant demand with its supply. “The annual need for 2,00,000 kidney transplants highlights the pressing urgency of the situation,” Kumar told the newspaper.
According to the WHO press release, “The latest data of 2022 from the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation indicate that more than 150,000 solid organ transplants (≤ 10 per cent of global needs) are performed worldwide annually, which is an increase of 52 per cent compared with 2010.”
Transplantation, which is a life-saving treatment, could not be scaled with legislation, infrastructure and financing.
The authors of the draft resolution noted with concern that the COVID-19 pandemic had a profound, negative effect on donation and transplantation activities, with an emphasis on approaches designed to strengthen the resilience of healthcare systems.
The draft also mentioned that insufficient access to transplantation therapies is one of the root causes of trafficking in persons for organ removal and trafficking in human organs, practices that undermine human rights and pose serious risks to public health.
The text urged member states to “establish, where appropriate, official international cooperation for the exchange of human cells, tissues and organs or transplant services, based on the principles of reciprocity and solidarity, as a means of facilitating universal access to transplantation therapies”.
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