Kidney Transplantation Racket Curbed In State, Moves To Chennai

Saturday January 3, 2004

Bangalore: A year ago, the kidney racket had been exposed in the State, blaming the State government with the Organ business. The good news this year is that the racket has been curbed in the State. The large number of unrelated transplants has come down to a countable few.

The bad news however is that the trade has moved to Tamil Nadu, with even the neighbouring Kerala becoming stringent in implementing the Organ Transplant Act. The end loser is however the patient.

While the list of patients depending on Dialysis while waiting for organ donors increases endlessly, cadaver transplants and organ donation drives have not been promoted effectively.

Chief of Health Task Force and Lokayukta Vigilance director (Health, Education and Social Welfare) Dr H Sudarshan said here that the number of unrelated transplants has come down to about five or six compared to the 200 transplants done annually in the last five years. ``In all, over a 1,000 unrelated transplants had been done in the last five years,'' he says. ``With the Authorisation Committee that screens kidney transplant patients making it difficult for unrelated transplant, the number has gone down,'' he says.

But the patients needing transplants have moved to Tamil Nadu. Doctors too admit that patients requiring transplants are moving to places like Chennai and Coimbatore to source kidneys.

``In Chennai, 800 unrelated transplants have taken place in one year. We have written to the Human Rights Commission in Tamil Nadu to look in to the matter,'' he says. In the State however, hospitals and relatives of patients are resorting to producing false documents to prove that the donor is a blood-relative. ``If the donor is blood-related, hospitals and patients' families need not inform the Authorisation Committee. They can inform the Appropriate Authority and go ahead with the transplant,'' he says.

On the other hand, the number of patients waiting for donor kidneys has been increasing every year. ``The total number of transplants we do every year has come down drastically. Where we were doing about 100 a year, we conduct only about 50 now,'' says Director of Manipal Institute of Renal Diseases Dr Sudarshan Ballal.

He says there are 5,000 to 6,000 new patients with End Stage Renal Disease needing transplants every year, with a majority of them having to depend on dialysis. For a transplanted kidney to work on a patient, the HLA Test should be conducted. ``The HLA (Human Leucytes Antigen) test tells you the genetic make-up, on the antigens that determine the compatibility of a donor kidney in a patient who receives it,'' he says. The chance of rejection is very less among relatives.

How can the shortage be met? Dr Sudarshan says the government has been directed to promote setting up of dialysis centres in cities, apart from promoting cadaver transplants. ``In the West, only cadaver transplants are in vogue. But the hospitals' lobby is not showing interest. They want to cash in on live transplants,'' he says.

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This article posted January 24, 2004.