Diversity and Organ Donation

FACTS

According to UNOS, there are approximately 92,000 people awaiting transplants.

46,649 patients, slightly more than half of the people awaiting an organ transplant are non Anglo-American:

• More than half of the patients waiting for a kidney transplant are non Anglo-American
• Nine out of ten African-Americans who undergo organ transplant surgery receive an
  organ from an Anglo-American donor.
• 35 percent of patients in the U.S. awaiting a kidney transplant are African-American
• 12.8% of the U.S. population, 37,098,946 people in the United States are African-American
• 25,256 African-Americans are on the national transplant waiting list; 635 have received
  kidney transplants
• So far 220 African-Americans have died waiting for a kidney transplant this year
• UNOS did NOT compute the figures for African-Americans due to the number of transplants
  being less than 10, or fewer than half the registrants have been transplanted for the 2001-2002
  Median Waiting Time while 13,340 African-Americans were added
• Medicare helps pay for kidney dialysis and kidney transplant services; it’s more cost effective
  to pay for the transplant than to keep up dialysis
• 19,919 African-Americans were organ donors in 2004
• 42,883 non Anglo-Americans were organ donors in 2004
• 121,533 Caucasians were donors in 2004
• 5,987 Texans are on the Transplant Waiting List
• 1,184 African-Americans and 2,471 Hispanics are on the Texas list
• 1,031 African-Americans and 1,957 Hispanics are waiting for a kidney
• Every 18 minutes, someone is added to the national waiting list
• Everyday, nine people die waiting for an organ transplant
• By the year 2010, one out of every twenty people will require an organ, tissue or corneal transplant

WHY MORE DIVERSITY IS NEEDED IN ORGAN DONATION

• The argument has been made that matching organs between members of the same ethnic and racial groups often enhances successful transplantation.
• A shortage of organs donated by minorities contributes to a longer waiting period for minorities.
• The longer the patient waits for a transplant, the greater the risk of their dying before the organ can be found.
• African-Americans are 17 times more likely than Caucasians to develop hypertension. As this hypertension often goes undiagnosed and untreated, it frequently results in end-stage renal disease and eventual kidney failure.
• African-Americans are four times more likely than Caucasians to be on dialysis due to kidney failure.
• The most effective treatment for kidney failure is transplantation
• One person of any creed, race or ethnic origin race or ethnic origin can donate organs that can potentially benefit as many as 7 people

HOW ORGAN RECIPIENTS ARE SELECTED

The National Transplant Act of 1984 established full and equal access to donated organs and tissues for all potential recipients on the basis of need and availability, not race or wealth. You may be seen as an outpatient or be admitted to the hospital for evaluation of your disease because your doctor feels that a transplant might help you. The purpose of this evaluation is to determine whether a transplant would be good for you. The hospital stay is several days. While you are hospitalized, you will have many blood and skin tests, x-rays and perhaps a cardiac catheterization. These are special tests that will help them to understand your disease and other aspects of your illness. On rare occasions they discover something that would make the transplantation too dangerous for you.

A computerized waiting list developed by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (USHHS) uses a ranking algorithm to match donated organs to potential recipients nationwide. The point system, uses criteria included blood type, medical urgency, and time spent on the waiting list to determine ranking priority. For heart, liver and lung transplants, criteria also include the size of the organ in comparison to the patient and the distance between the donor’s hospital and transplant center. Tissue typing, organ function and other complex laboratory tests are done for all transplants. This testing ordinarily takes from eight to 12 hours.

Source:

(OPTN) THE ORGAN PROCUREMENTAND TRANSPLANTATION NETWORK

(UNOS) UNITED NETWORK FOR ORGAN SHARING, 2005

CQ RESEARCHER, 2005

(HRSA) HEALTH RESOURCES AND SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

(MOTTEP) MINORITY ORGAN TISSUE TRANSPLANT EDUCATION PROGRAM