Can We Count on You?

Written by Musmirah_Shahzada on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 10:45

Campaign targets BME Organ Donor Gap

Black and south Asian people are being urged to consider their wishes for organ donation, in a bid to tackle a growing ethnic minority ‘donor gap’.

A new UK Transplant campaign will see leaflet and poster distribution teams visiting 5,000 black and Asian businesses, community centres and places of worship in towns and cities across England as part of an awareness-raising drive.

The campaign – titled ‘Can we count on you? ’ – highlights the fact that black and Asian people are three times more likely to need a kidney transplant than the general population. This is partly due to diet and also an increased incidence of diabetes and high blood pressure. Almost 1,800 need a transplant, and their chances of success are greater if they can be matched with a donor from the same ethnic background.

Families and friends of black and Asian potential donors are more likely to withhold consent for donation to take place than for white donors. Indeed, the refusal rate for non-white potential donors is 69% - compared with 35% for white potential donors (Potential Donor Audit, April 2003 - September 2005).

But with black and Asian people accounting for fewer than 2% of deceased donors, transplant patients from these communities typically wait twice as long as others for a suitable donor to become available. Last year, almost 60 black and Asian patients died while waiting.

The campaign urges black and Asian people to help tackle the ‘donor gap’ by discussing organ donation and signing up to the NHS Organ Donor Register. The number of black and Asian people joining the register has increased in recent years, but the need for donated organs continues to rise.

View the black campaign and south Asian campaign website pages.

Identified barriers to donation among ethnic minority communities

The campaign also seeks to dispel some common myths that are known to affect donation rates, such as assumed religious objections. Many people cite this as a reason not to donate although none of the major faiths, including Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism, forbid it. Some identified barriers to donation are:

Confusion about who can donate and receive organs and the organ donation and transplantation "process".
Mistrust/lack of confidence in medical profession.
Fatalistic view, particularly held by some black people, that it is God who decides who lives or dies and it is not up to people to intervene by donating organs.
Reluctance to discuss death.
Fear of disfigurement of the body.
Lack of awareness of NHS Organ Donor Register and how to register.
Little awareness of why Asian and black people are more likely to need a transplant or the link between hypertension, diabetes and kidney failure.
Assumed cultural and religious objections to organ donation.
Perceived status appears to have an impact on attitudes, particularly amongst some black people. They feel marginalised by mainstream society and this affects their willingness to participate in initiatives seen to come from mainstream organisations.

UK Transplant campaigns and marketing manager Tamsin May added: “There is a shortage of organ donors of all ethnic backgrounds, but the problem is particularly acute among the black and south Asian communities.

“Transplants tend to be more successful when donor and recipient share the same ethnic background and the shortage of suitable donors means black and Asian people spend much longer waiting for a transplant. We need people to talk about their wishes for organ donation and join the register.”

You can find out more about organ donation and join the NHS Organ Donor Register by telephoning 0845 60 60 400 or visiting www.uktransplant.org.uk

Did you know? Some facts and figures:

1 in 5 people waiting for a transplant is from the black or Asian communities
14% of people waiting for a kidney transplant are Asian and over 7% are black even though they compromise only 4% and 2% respectively of the general population. Medical experts estimate that, in a few years time, in parts of the country with large ethnic communities, half the people on kidney dialysis may be black or Asian.
1 in nearly 10 of all cornea transplants carried out in the UK help an Asian person gain their sight again Asian people are more likely to need a cornea transplant. The need for a cornea transplant for keratoconus is greater for Asian people. Asians require a cornea transplant for keratoconus at a younger age (under 30) than white people.
Asian people are also more likely to need a liver transplant. While 4% of the UK population are Asian, Asian people comprise 6% of the liver transplant list . This is because viral hepatitis - Hepatitis B & C - that can lead to live damage and liver failure is more prevalent in the Asian population.
Just 1% of people registered on the ODR are Asian and 0.3% of people registered are black
1.2% of people who donate kidneys after their death are Asian and 0.7% are black
Asian and black people have to wait on average twice as long as a white person for a kidney transplant. White patients wait on average 722 days, Asian patients wait 1496 days and Black people wait 1389 days
1 in 8 people who died waiting for a transplant in 2006 was of black or Asian origin
People from African-Caribbean and south Asian communities are three times more likely to suffer from kidney failure due to diet and lifestyle factors, as well as increased susceptibility to diabetes and high blood pressure.
At the end of 2006 there were 1,798 black and Asian patients actively listed for an organ transplant, a 17% increase on the 2005 year-end figure. The majority needed a kidney transplant.
Figures from 1998-2000 show that black people wait an average of 1,389 days for a kidney transplant and Asian people an average of 1,496 days. In contrast, white patients wait an average of 722 days.

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