Only 11,113 Sarawakians are organ pledgers

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(From right) Mohamad Amir, Teng, Dr Tan, Aziman, Dr Kamarudin and Mual at launch of the organ donation campaign.

(From right) Mohamad Amir, Teng, Dr Tan, Aziman, Dr Kamarudin and Mual at launch of the organ donation campaign.

KUCHING: Only 11,113 of the about 2.6 million Sarawakians have so far pledged to donate their organs and tissues after death.

The figure, however, shows a marked improvement compared to the 1997 national figure, where only 2,566 Malaysian had pledged to do so after death.

State Health Department (Medical) deputy director Dr Kamarudin Lajim said efforts by the Sarawak team were slowly beginning to pay off as more people were coming forward to pledge their organs.

He said he did not have the 1997 figure for Sarawak off hand, but between 1997 and September this year 11,113 Sarawakians of all genders had registered themselves as organ pledgers.

“Although the number of pledgers is increasing yearly, we are still far from being able to meet the needs of patients on the waiting list.

“In fact, we need more pledgers among Sarawakians, especially kidney donors,” he told a press conference after the closing ceremony of the state-level Organ Donation Awareness Week at Bangunan Sultan Iskandar here yesterday.

Earlier, State Health Department director Dr Jamilah Hasim said from 1997 until September this year, the National Transplant Resource Centre (NTRC) had registered a total of 362,459 organ pledgers.

She said this year alone (until Sept), some 19,333 Malaysians had registered themselves as organ donors.

“In Sarawak, 772 people have pledged to donate their organs after death this year alone (until Sept).

“This figure is still very low compared to the state’s total population of nearly three millions,” Dr Jamilah said in her text of speech read by Dr Kamarudin.

She said according to NTRC, the majority of the organ pledgers were women with 206,020 or 56.84 per cent while men only made up 42.11 per cent or 152,645 of the total number.

At 152,637 or 42.11 per cent, Chinese comprise the majority of the pledgers, followed by

Malays (105,336 or 29.06 per cent), Indians (84,371 or 23.28 per cent) and other races below six per cent).

Dr Jamilah said the number of organ donors among Malays and other races had also increased significantly.

She said Malay pledgers had increased by 309 per cent from 25,751 in 2010 to 105,336 in 2016 while others (Sarawakians and Sabahans) had increased to 348.3 per cent from 4,470 in 2010 to 20,041 in 2016.

“This shows that Sarawakians and Sabahans’ acceptance towards organ donation has been very encouraging.

“It also proves that our campaign has succeeded to attract people’s interest into becoming organ donors,” she said.

State Health Department principle assistant director (health promotion) Aziman Mahdi was also present at the function.

Prior the closing ceremony a dialogue session was held, which lined up panelists comprising medical officer from the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Treatment (SGH) Dr Tan Boey Warn, principle assistant Mufti from state Mufti Department Ustaz Mual Suaud and a donor’s next of kin Valentine Teng.

Psychology officer from Sarawak General Hospital Mohammad Amir Usop was the moderator.