National Transplant Day: Public Health highlights that donating organs is donating life

Asuncion, IP Agency.- This July 9th, Paraguay commemorates National Transplant Day. In reference to this date, the Minister of Public Health, María Teresa Barán, stressed that donating organs is donating life, and recalled that currently, some 250 people are on the waiting list in need of an organ.

“Today, on National Transplant Day, I would like to thank those who choose to be donors, their families for supporting this noble decision, and the professionals for their dedication to advancing organ donation in the country. Donating organs is donating life,” the official said through her official account on the X network.

This date commemorates the first heart transplant performed in our country on July 9, 1996, at the Baptist Medical Center in Asunción. The commemoration was instituted by Law No. 5603/15.

To celebrate this important day, INAT organized a series of activities. The commemoration will start at 8:00 a.m. at the Centro Médico Bautista, followed by the main event at the INAT headquarters at 10:00 a.m.

During this event, bone marrow donor recruitment services, general medical care and specialized consultations in nutrition and endocrinology will be provided.

The head of the Ministry of Public Health stressed that in Paraguay approximately 250 people are currently on the waiting list, needing an organ. She said that we must not forget that for every person who decides to donate, 10 people benefit from this act of donation.

Barán stressed that as a Paraguayan government, the great challenge is to ensure that transplants cannot only be performed in the capital. He added that they are working to ensure that these donations are also carried out in the interior of the country.

In this regard, he pointed out that the first transplant in the interior of the country was carried out in the department of Alto Paraná and that they are working to extend it to other departments, in addition to urging the entire Paraguayan population that donating organs is donating life.