Canadian organ donations down sharply during pandemic

 During the pandemic, Canadian kidney exchange was suspended, and organ donation was sharply reduced.

The ChronicleHerald has the story:

Organ donations down sharply during pandemic  by Andrew Duffy

"Organ donations in Canada have dropped significantly during the pandemic even though COVID-19 has raised the country’s annual death toll.

"Medical officials say organ donations are down 20 to 30 per cent from pre-pandemic levels.

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"Living donations, including kidney and liver donations, are down 30 per cent, Shemie said, while organ donations from deceased patients have dropped 21 per cent.

"There are a variety of reasons for those declines, he said, starting with the impact of the pandemic on intensive care units (ICUs). Organ donors are identified and managed in ICUs, but those units have been swamped with COVID-19 cases at various times during the past 10 months, he said. Transplant recipients also need to spend time in ICUs recovering from their surgeries.

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"What’s more, he said, the pandemic has reduced the pool of potential organ donors because the number of people suffering devastating brain injuries has gone down. Lockdown restrictions mean fewer people are driving cars or playing sports with a resultant drop in serious injuries.

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"More than 20,000 Canadians have died from COVID-19 during the past year, but the disease makes them unsuitable as organ donors. “There are a substantial number of people who are dying, tragically, of COVID, but because they have COVID, they can’t become donors,” Shemie said.

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"In Italy, transplant doctors have made limited use of donated organs from COVID-19 patients. In that country, people on the transplant wait list who have survived COVID-19 are eligible to receive organs donated by people who have died with the disease, Shemie said.

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"Canadian Blood Services recently announced that its Kidney Paired Donation program, an inter-provincial organ sharing effort, is back up and running after a temporary pause. "