Foreign experts express approval of China's organ transplantation system, denounce rumors

2016-08-24 07:39:04    CRIENGLISH.com      Web Editor: Xie Cheng The 26th International Congress of the Transplantation Society is held in China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on August 18, 2016. [Photo: Chinanews.com] An international meeting of the world's brightest minds in organ transplants has come to a close in Hong Kong, with those attending lauding the work being done in China to advance organ transplant policies and research. CRI's Xie Cheng has more.   The annual Transplant Society gathering is described as the world's most authoritative academic conference on organ transplants. This year's event in Hong Kong has seen Chinese transplant surgeons and researchers provide an open and comprehensive overview of what's been taking place in the field over the past few years. Transplant Society President-elect, Doctor Marti Manyalich, is considered one of the world's leading experts in organ transplant research. Having helped train medical staff at Chinese hospitals, Manyalich says international cooperation is key to creating a better world-wide system for organ transplants. "A mix of these cultures, I think, what makes the thing successful. We cannot teach in hotel; we cannot teach in auditorium. We have to do together the work of organ donation. And this, because it is a new program in China, it is a new procedure, and this procedure is inside of the hospital. Also, how the government organized the training, I think, is very right; because they sent experts to see, then we can work here. However, I insist the connection be all the time," said Manyalich. Beyond science and research, this year's conference in Hong Kong also discussed the darker side of organ transplants, including the false allegations which continue to surround organ transplants in China. Doctor J. Michael Millis, chief of organ transplants at the University of Chicago, says wild rumors of so-called "back alley" organ transplants taking place in China just isn't possible. "You know transplant is hard; getting success is hard. To think that hospitals are doing this outside of an organized system and still getting reasonable results is impossible. Also, even though it is hard, the people who seek it and the people who pay for it, because it is expensive, they want results, and they are not going to tolerate poor results,” said Millis. There have been reports of as many as 100,000 transplants being conducted in China a year, which Millis says doesn't fit with the realities involved in organ transplants. "I have been doing this in China for so long; I have helped companies that help supply the medications and use the machines to help organs be preserved while they are being transported. So these people have an idea about how many transplants are being performed, because they are supplying the products that transplants need, and it is not 100,000, it is the number that we know," said Millis. The U.S. ranks first in the number of transplant operations completed, with no more than 30,000, according to official statistics. A ban on harvesting organs from death row prisoners in China came to an end last year. Unauthorized organ trading became a criminal offense in China in 2011. Over the past 2 years, health authorities have been implementing a nation-wide organ donation program. A national guideline on organ donation was published in August of last year to try to raise public awareness, with stats showing a sharp rise in organ donations since then. For CRI, I'm Xie Cheng.