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Many Kelantanese reluctant to become organ donors or receive cadaver organs

KOTA BARU: Kelantan holds the unenviable record of being the state with the lowest number of organ donors.

State Local Government, Health and Housing Committee chairman Dr Izani Husin said Kelantan has recorded 12,946 registered organ donors since 1997.

He said he believed that several factors, such as taboo over organ donations, were among the key reasons for the low numbers.

"The number of registered organ donors in Kelantan is still low compared to other states. There is still a sense of fear and unwillingness among the people to donate their organs upon death.

"Many also refuse to accept organ transplants from the deceased. We have the medical experts, facilities as well as patients (who need the organs) but we lack organ donors.

"This is the problem that the authorities are facing," he told reporters after launching the state-level Organ Donation Awareness Week here today. Also present was state Health director Datuk Dr Zaini Hussin.

Dr Izani said the state Health Department has been instructed to amplify its awareness campaign to boost the number of organ donors.

He also urged non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the state to assist with the efforts.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin recently announced that the MySejahtera mobile application, previously only used for Covid-19 monitoring, will soon introduce a new feature allowing the public to register as organ donors.

Khairy said data showed that 10,442 people were on the organ transplant waiting list in Malaysia.

He said that according to the National Transplant Resource Centre, there were 517,758 registered organ donors since 1997.

However, as of July this year, only 779 were actual donors.

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