Organ Donations Rise but Are Still Too Low
WASHINGTON (Reuters) Apr 23 - The number of organ donors across the US increased by almost 7% in 2001, many of them Hispanics and blacks who have historically been reluctant to donate organs, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Monday.
But the increased numbers barely made a dent in the list of people waiting for organs, HHS said. More than 79,000 patients are on the current list waiting for a liver, kidney, heart or other organ.
"Unfortunately, demand still heavily outweighs supply," HHS said in a statement. "In 2001, more than 6,000 people on the waiting list died, about half of them waiting for kidney transplants."
Most organs are donated just after a person dies, and to be any good they must be removed quickly. But HHS said there had also been an increase in the number of "living donors" who give one of their two kidneys, a piece of liver or lung.
Because African-Americans are more genetically diverse than people of European or Asian descent, black donors are urgently needed. Genetic diversity makes it harder to match tissue types, which means more donors are needed so that doctors have a larger pool to choose from.
HHS said that in 2001, 12,522 people donated organs, up from the 2000 total of 11,711. The number of Hispanic donors increased to 1,492, up nearly 14%, while the number of black donors increased 13% to 1,620.
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