Mulago hospital conducts four successful kidney transplants
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Mulago National Referral Hospital has conducted four successful kidney transplant surgeries.
Professor Philipa Musoke, the board chairperson of the hospital, says that the transplant was for patients with end-stage kidney disease. She says that the achievement comes as the hospital expands its capacity for renal transplants, providing life-saving treatment to patients.
Earlier this year, the hospital carried out its first successful kidney transplant.
Musoke said that four kidney transplants were conducted with technical support from Yashoda Hospitals in India, which has supported the hospital for over 10 years.
The number of patients with end-stage kidney disease who require a transplant increases in Uganda every year due to the surge in non-communicable diseases.
For every 100 patients, 13 would have end-stage kidney disease requiring a transplant which implies that out one 10 Ugandans, 1 has a kidney disease.
Dr. Rosemary Byanyima, the Mulago hospital Executive Director, said that despite the hospital carrying out transplants, there is no Human Organ Transplant Council mandated to regulate the process in the country. Byanyima says that the Minister of Health informed her that the government does not have the funds to establish the council.
The organ transplant council is responsible for overseeing and regulating organ, tissue, or cell donation and transplants. It is also responsible for the regulation, organization, and supervision of all national human organ and transplant activities.
Dr. Byanyima said that last year, they recorded 1,083 patients in need of dialysis due to kidney failure, using the 25 machines the hospital has.
Dr Frank Asiimwe, a consultant urologist and transplant surgeon at Mulago Hospital, said that they are now aiming to conduct kidney transplants performed by Ugandans, following several years of assistance from experts at Yashoda Hospital in India.
Uganda’s transplant law designates Mulago as the pioneering transplant hospital. However, there are other private hospitals, like Lubaga Hospital, that indicate they have the requirements to conduct organ transplants.
According to the law, no hospital shall begin transplant activities unless it is designated as a transplant centre under the organ donation and transplant law.
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