Kuwait: Kuwait ranked first among the Arab countries and second in the Middle East in terms of organ donation, according to the Kuwaiti Society for Organ Transplantation, Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
During a ceremony held to honor and register new donors on Thursday, the association’s head Mustafa Al-Moussawi said, “In 2022, Kuwait witnessed about 50 kidney transplants from 50 deceased and 49 similar operations from the living.”
He stated that the total number of local donors remains small compared to the GCC, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries, explaining that the aforementioned campaign aims to increase the number of donation card holders from 17,000 donors currently to 30,000.
He pointed out that organ transplants include the heart, lung, liver, pancreas, children’s intestines, cornea, and parts of the arteries. He added he hoped to reopen the liver transplant program after it was stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The process of organ donation in Kuwait dates back to 1979 but it was limited to donation from the living, through relatives, and in 1996 a program began to donate brain deaths.
