The number of kidney transplants being carried out each year in Ireland has fallen by 20 per cent since 1990, according to the chief executive of the Irish Kidney Association (IKA), Mark Murphy.
Speaking at the launch of Organ Donor Awareness Week 2007 yesterday, Mr Murphy said that in 1990, there were 137 kidney transplants when the population was 3.4 million which represented a net drop of 20 per cent in deceased kidney transplantation in the 16-year period per million of population.
While Mr Murphy said 2006 was a record year for the number of organs transplanted in Ireland - due to massive growth in liver transplantation and the development of the lung transplant programme - he cautioned that this record must continue, year on year, as demand for organ transplants continued to grow. The challenge for 2007, he said, was for the Mater hospital to conduct the first cystic fibrosis lung transplant in Ireland.
Noting the small increase in heart transplantation figures with 14 heart transplant operations taking place in 2006 (an increase of three on 2005), he said he could not understand why heart transplant figures in both Ireland and the UK were so low compared with other developed European countries.
Mr Murphy said that in 2006, a total of 234 organ transplants were achieved and there were an additional four kidney transplants from living donors.
"There are currently over 600 people in Ireland awaiting life-saving organ transplant operations and the amount of operations performed is entirely dependent on the goodwill of the public and their decision to carry an organ donor card," Mr Murphy said.
He said the kidney transplant figures for 2006 were slightly above the annual average with 142 deceased donor kidney transplants and four living donor kidney transplants - five of the kidney transplants included simultaneous transplantation of a pancreas as well. However, Mr Murphy said that as of December, 2006 there were 1,482 adults receiving dialysis treatment in Ireland, which represents a 10 per cent increase on the previous year.
Organ donor cards are available by phoning the IKA at Locall 1890 KIDNEY (1890 543639) or freetext the word DONOR to 50050.
Meanwhile, the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland also launched a campaign to raise awareness of the need for more multi-organ donors. Its chief executive, Godfrey Fletcher, said the week was about generating public awareness of the "great need for organs".
Cystic fibrosis is a multi-organ disease for which there is, as yet, no cure. The lives of sufferers can be vastly improved through a lung transplant.
