Saudi Arabia ranks fourth in the world in kidney transplant requirements. There are currently about 14,000 patients on the waiting list for transplant.

Dr. Faisal Shaheen, director of the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation, said at a press conference in Jeddah on Saturday that the Kingdom needs around 600 donors per year.

“We only have around 120 to 130 donors and there is only a 36 percent chance of finding matching donors. Cases of brain death registered in courts only account for 60 percent of the actual number of available donors. We can achieve an 80 percent match rate if all the cases are registered,” he said.

Shaheen said that donation rates would increase dramatically if members of the public were made aware that such an initiative can save a life. “We require 1,200 kidneys and there are 500 patients waiting for heart transplants, 700 for liver transplants, 500 for pancreas replacements and 500 for lung transplants every year in the Kingdom. Around 47 percent of donor recipients are in the 26 to 55 age bracket,” he said.

The press conference was organized by King Abdulaziz University in coordination with the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation, which is organizing an awareness campaign on organ transplantation and donation from Thursday. The three-day campaign will be launched at the Al-Hamra Corniche.

More than 90 male and female medicine students from King Abdulaziz University, along with volunteers from inside and outside the university and the Saudi Center for Organ Transplant, will support the campaign.