Jane Nafula
18 August 2008
The government will establish a bank for vital body organs after an enabling law is passed. The Commissioner for Clinical Health Services, Dr Jacinto Amandua, last week said the facility would be set up after Parliament passes the Organ Transplant Bill.
The Bill is currently before the legislation committee of the Ministry of Health and will soon be tabled in Parliament, he said.
"The law will handle organ transplant, harvesting, transportation, safety and storage. The vital organs include eyes, kidneys and bone marrow," Dr Amandua said.
It will also address the issue of trafficking human organs, the commissioner added. Dr Amandua said the organs will be got from donors as well as corpses. The organs, he said, will be thoroughly examined to ensure that they are free of infections before they are taken to the bank.
Dr Amandua made the revelation while touring Orbis Flying Eye Hospital, which is carrying out eye treatment from an aircraft at Entebbe International Airport. The visiting eye experts, besides treating patients, are also training Ugandans in corneal transplant, retinal surgery and diagnosis, management and treatment of eyes.
Dr Amandua said about 100,000 people need cornea transplants but they are helpless because the country lacks an eye bank where donors can place tissues. Corneal transplant involves the removal of a damaged cornea and replacing it with a healthy one from a donor. The cornea is a transparent tissue that covers the front part of the eye and regulates light entering the eye.
Most patients in need of cornea transplants are taken to Kenya, making the exercise costly. Once the bank is established, patients will no longer be referred abroad, Dr Amandua stated, adding that Uganda has doctors who can perform the transplants. He revealed that about 420,000 people are blind while one million are partially blind.
Dr Amandua noted that most eye complications are caused by conditions that can be easily treated or prevented. The major causes of blindness include cataracts (clouding of the eyes), trachoma, measles, accidents, malnutrition and diabetes.
The Director of the Orbis International Flying Hospital, Mr Erwin Temmerman, said the project was the second to be conducted in Uganda following invitation from the Health ministry.
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