Children face longest waits as SA battles kidney transplant shortage
With National Kidney Awareness Week kicking off on Monday, there are concerns being raised over South Africa’s organ donation crisis, with children waiting the longest for lifesaving kidney transplants.
This year's theme is “Shining a Light on Children, Chronic Kidney Disease, and the Gift of Donation".
" South Africa's got a very high rate of kidney failure, this is due to diabetes, high blood pressure, and HIV,” says Managing Director of Transplant Education for Living Legacies, Stella de Kock.
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“So we've got one of the highest rates of kidney failure in the world and a very low donation rate. Our donation rates about 1.2 per million population."
De Kock says children with kidney disease often wait up to two-and-a-half times longer than adults for organs, and some die before a match is found.
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She says education is critical, as myths and silence around donation continue to cost lives.
" Support from government would go a long way for these families because if, if the kids need to do dialysis, it means usually that one parent need to look after the little one. So that also has a big impact not just on the one person in the family, but it's, it affects the whole family if someone has got chronic kidney disease. So early detection that is very, very important."
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