TEHRAN – The national ‘Organ Donation, Life Donation’ week will kick off on Thursday and wrap up on May 21.

Each year, the health ministry observes the week focusing on a specific theme to highlight and promote the culture of organ donation following brain death as a therapeutic, social, cultural, and even religious mission that can save the lives of patients in need of organ transplantation.

This year, the week is scheduled to be held under the theme ‘promoting the culture of organ donation after brain death’, the health ministry’s website reported.

Each day of the week highlights a particular issue. 

Thursday, May 15, ‘Importance of organ donation in saving up lives, and improving patients’ quality of life’

Friday, May 16, ‘Education, an effective component in raising public awareness on organ donation after brain death’

Saturday. May 17, ‘Comprehensive information and promotion of organ donation culture following brain death’

Sunday, May 18, ‘Interaction, empowerment and enhancement of participatory approaches of governmental and non-governmental organizations regarding organ donation and transplantation’

Monday, May 19, ‘Organ donation coordinators: the key pillar of organ transplantation’

Tuesday, May 20, ‘Organ donors’ families: the most sublime humans in terms of sacrifice and forgiveness’

Wednesday, May 21, ‘The National Organ Donation, Life Donation Day’

Shiraz hosting Eurasian-Iranian organ transplant congress

The fourth annual Eurasian-Iranian organ transplant congress is being held in Shiraz from May 13 to 15.

Hosted by Abu-Ali-Sina Transplant Center, some 80 national and international professors and experts from Iran, Spain, Belarus, the USA, Russia, Belgium, Lebanon, and Austria will deliver speeches in person or online, ILNA reported.

Some 50 participants from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, India, Kuwait, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Turkey, and other countries are attending the congress.

“Abu-Ali-Sina is a unique medical center in terms of rates and success in transplant surgeries,” ILNA quoted Ali Malek-Hosseini, known as Iran’s father of liver transplant, as saying.

Unlike any other medical center around the world, some 98 percent of kidney transplants in Iran and at this center are performed from a brain-dead donor. It is really important as many countries make use of live donors for kidney transplantation, he noted.

The ‘Great Ceremony of Life’ will be observed as a concluding event to honor the family members of brain-dead patients. 

MT/MG