LAHORE – As part of its efforts to end organ trafficking, the Punjab government has approved Pakistan’s first swap transplant policy, giving patients access to organs from donors other than blood relatives.
The decision of the Punjab Human Organ Transplantation Authority (PHOTA) has put Pakistan among the few countries which provide this facility.
PHOTA Director General Prof Asad Aslam said the plan was approved at a meeting chaired by Punjab Health Minister Prof Dr Yasmin Rashid on Monday.
Under this plan, he said, an unrelated donor may give his or her organ to a patient. In return, a family member of the recipient would donate an organ to another patient.
“This method is successful for those people whose blood group does not match within the family and they require an organ donation from a stranger,” dawn.com quoted Aslam as saying.
In India, the first swap transplant was performed years ago. India had introduced the swap transplant policy after amending the Transplantation of Human Organs Act 2011.
Aslam, who attended the meeting on the swap transplant policy at the provincial health secretariat in Lahore, said that approval of swap transplant was a milestone in the organ transplant history of Pakistan.
He said it would enhance the organ availability for transplantation and would be a great help for patients suffering from chronic liver and kidney disease who don’t have compatible donor in their families.
