Propagating the need for organ donation, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday said that people should overlook superstition and emotion to look at the larger interest of society. The Minister was present at the launch of AIIMS’s new public initiative called Asian Indian Donor Marrow Registration where Vardhan too registered himself for bone marrow donation. Being the occasion of World Organ Donation Day, the Minister also gave assurance that by next year the long-pending full-body donation centre would be functional at the Safdarjung Hospital.
According to Vardhan, several patients die in India because of unavailability of a matching bone marrow, but if there were enough people who were willing to donate their bone marrows, these patients could be saved. He said, “Thousands of Indian patients wait for an inordinate amount of time for a blood stem cell transplant and face hurdles finding a genetically matching donor as there are few registered donors available in the country. Even several patients suffering from Thalassemia and other blood-related disorders like leukemia have to wait long to find a genetically matching donor with fewer donors registered in Indian registry. If we have enough donors, we can save the lives of almost 50,000 people.”
AIDMR was launched in 1994 in association with Dadhichi Deh Dan Samiti to improve Indian donors registry and at present has only 3,925 donors registered in it. However, it was re-launched as a public initiative on Wednesday.