ITN Vol 14; Issue 45, 2015 

Organ Donation and Transplantation in South Africa: What Can India Learn?

Simone Schriger (USA), a Thomas J. Watson Fellow visited MOHAN Foundation, Chennai in 2015. She was on an observership examining different types of corporal donation in three countries two of these being India and South Africa. Her article in ITN offers interesting comparisons between the organ donation and transplantation scenarios in the two countries.

“...One major area of focus in the field of organ donation and transplantation in South Africa is that of HIV. South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world; in 2013, the estimated prevalence was 19.1% of the adult population, compared to .3% in India. Due to the prevalence of HIV, many brain dead patients in South Africa – potential donors – were once deemed unsuitable due to their HIV status. Over the past decade, transplant surgeon Elmi Muller has studied the transplantation of kidneys from HIV positive deceased donors to HIV-positive recipients. Her 2015 study show(ed) that at 3-5 years post transplant, outcomes of transplants from HIV-positive donors are similar to those from HIV-negative donors. This is hugely important as a large number of once unviable organs may now be viable, which may lead to increasing deceased donation rates...”