China is suffering a serious shortage of human organ donations, a senior health official said yesterday in Guangzhou, the capital of south China's Guangdong Province.

"There are about 1.5 million people in China who need transplants each year but only around 10,000 operations can be carried out due to shortages," Huang Jiefu, vice minister of health, told a conference on the management of organ transplants.

China, like other countries, was faced with a huge gap between patients who need organ transplants and limited organ donations, Huang said.

The main cause of the shortage is that many Chinese are not willing to donate their organs after death because of traditional rituals and beliefs. There's also no clear guidance for the public on what to do if they wish to donate organs. This can lead to those willing to donate being unable to do so.

The absence of laws concerning organ transplants and irregular transplant procedures in some medical institutions have blocked the promotion of organ transplants in China, Huang noted.

China performs the second most organ transplant operations in the world every year and its technology is improving with a longer survival rate for patients who've had surgery, said Huang.

The Ministry of Health banned the sale of human organs on July 1, and has completed drafting China's human organ transplant regulation. The document is now undergoing revision and will be promulgated shortly. 

Huang called for the establishment of an information network that registers and keeps track of every human organ donation. He also said the promotion of organ donations among the public would increase the number of donors.

Huang noted that advertisements aimed at attracting foreign patients disguised as tourists to receive transplant operations in China were strictly banned.

(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2006)