2023 saw highest-ever organ transplants in India, 63% of living donors were women: NOTTO report

According to the data, 63% living donors were women while 77% of deceased donors were men. Among the recipients, 30% were women, with their proportion being the highest among lung recipients at 47%.

Written by Anonna Dutt

New Delhi | Updated: August 4, 2024 10:47 AM IST

2 min read

Organ transplant report, organ transplants, NOTTO report Organ transplant, organ transplants data, NOTTO report, Indian express news, current affairs

Foreigners are allocated organs from deceased donors only when there are no Indian patients at the state, regional, or national level who matches.

Of the total 18,378 organ transplants in the country in 2023 — the highest-ever in a year — 10% were to foreign nationals who had come to India for treatment, while more than six of 10 living organ donors were women, shows data released Saturday by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO).

According to the data, 63% living donors were women while 77% of deceased donors were men. Among the recipients, 30% were women, with their proportion being the highest among lung recipients at 47%.

The country also saw 197 lung transplants, says the data.

India achieved another milestone in 2023: more than 1,000 deceased organ donors in a year for the first time, breaching its record from last year, NOTTO said. Deceased-donor transplants have soared from 837 in 2013 to 2,935 in 2023.

There were 1,851 organ transplants to foreign nationals in the country and Delhi-NCR accounted for nearly 78% of these. Delhi saw a total of 4,426 organ transplants in 2023 and foreign nationals accounted for over 32% of them. Rajasthan with 116 transplants to foreign nationals came second followed by West Bengal with 88 transplants, according to the data. This data is important in the backdrop of allegations of irregularities in approval for transplants in foreign nationals reported from Delhi and Rajasthan. There were allegations of Myanmarese nationals “purchasing” kidneys from poor people in their country and getting the surgeries done at Delhi hospital.

Importantly, the data released Saturday shows that nine of the organ transplants to foreigners were carried out with organs from unrelated deceased donors. Three were carried out in Tamil Nadu, two each in Delhi, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Foreigners are allocated organs from deceased donors only when there are no Indian patients at the state, regional, or national level who matches.

The data also shows there were eight domino transplants in the country. Under the procedure, if donor A is not a match for recipient A but recipient B, and donor B is a match for recipient A, the organs are exchanged among the donor recipient pair. “…the organ donation rate in our country still continues to be less than 1 per million population,” the report said.

Anonna Dutt

Anonna Dutt is a Principal Correspondent who writes primarily on health at the Indian Express. She reports on myriad topics ranging from the growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension to the problems with pervasive infectious conditions. She reported on the government’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic and closely followed the vaccination programme. Her stories have resulted in the city government investing in high-end tests for the poor and acknowledging errors in their official reports. Dutt also takes a keen interest in the country’s space programme and has written on key missions like Chandrayaan 2 and 3, Aditya L1, and Gaganyaan. She was among the first batch of eleven media fellows with RBM Partnership to End Malaria. She was also selected to participate in the short-term programme on early childhood reporting at Columbia University’s Dart Centre. Dutt has a Bachelor’s Degree from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune and a PG Diploma from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. She started her reporting career with the Hindustan Times. When not at work, she tries to appease the Duolingo owl with her French skills and sometimes takes to the dance floor. ... Read More

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