The Health Ministry and the Viet Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee has launched an organ donation campaign to meet high patient demand for organ transplants.

Doctors perform a surgery to take organs from a donor at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. (Source: Cho Ray Hospital)

Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said on October 26 that only a few patients received transplants because of scarce donation stores.

The ministry reports that roughly 6,000 people need life-saving kidney transplants; 1,500 patients are waiting for a new liver; and 6,000 are on the waiting list for cornea transplants in the country.

According to ministry records, 1,116 kidney transplants, 48 liver transplants, 13 heart transplants,1,401 cornea transplants and one pancreas transplant have been performed in Viet Nam since 1992.

(Source: VNA)