Over 31,000 waiting for kidney transplant

KIDNEY patients form the largest waiting list to receive an organ in the country with 31,084 people.

Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya said the others waiting for organ transplants were seven liver patients, five heart patients and four lung patients.

He said a total of 381,353 people in Malaysia had pledged themselves as organ donors as of last Jan 31. However, it was still low as it only represented one per cent of the total population.

“This percentage is still small compared to developed countries where the number of organ donors there have reached 30 to 40 per cent of the population,” he said in reply to a question from Datuk Fauzi Zahari ( BN- Setiawangsa) at the Dewan Rakyat sitting yesterday.

Therefore, he said, the country still required more people to pledge as organ donors. — Bernama