MORE THAN 11,000 PATIENTS DESPERATELY SEEKING ORGAN DONORS

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 (Bernama)-- The waiting list of patients requiring
organ transplants has reached a critical level with more than 11,000 people
waiting for donors, Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai said Saturday.

He said 11,000 were kidney patients, 29 liver, 8 heart, 12 lung patients
while two were waiting for both lung and heart transplantations.

"The ministry is looking for people who could donate their organs and
tissues to save patients who are desperately in the need of organ
transplantations," he told reporters after launching the 3rd Global Bio-Herbs
Economic forum in Seri Kembangan here.

He said the country managed to obtain 26 cadaveric, 82 kidney, four liver,
23 cornea and 19 heart donors up to Dec 11 this year. When the organ donation
pledging campaign started in 1997 there were only 2,568 pledgers and this
increased yearly until it reached 135,847 pledgers nationwide as at Dec 11 this
year.

Earlier Liow said the government was focusing on the safety and efficacy of
herbal products in Malaysia in view that more consumers were taking herbal
products to maintain their well-being.

Liow said the ministry had been diligently monitoring herbal products in the
market and conducting random sampling of herbal products to ensure that they met
the specified standards registered by the manufacturers.

"All of these initiatives are aimed at weeding out unsafe products from the
market...however manufacturers should also be responsible by ensuring that only
safe and permissible ingredients are used and the Compliance to Good
Manufacturing Practice (GMP) is the most important" he added.

He also said that the stringent quality control of ingredients and products
should be conducted in accredited laboratories to ensure that the products were
safe and of acceptable quality.
-- BERNAMA