By STEPHANIE KUNDA

UTH

THE University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka has urged the public to embrace organ transplants because the institution has acquired equipment for operations especially for kidney transplant.
This follows the first-ever kidney transplant scheduled to be conducted this year at Zambia’s biggest hospital.
UTH Senior Medical Superintendent for Adults and Emergency Clarence Chiluba said there was need for the country to embrace organ transplant.
“We as UTH are ready. We have always been ready. We have the personnel, equipment and infrastructure to carry out the kidney transplant,” he said.
He said it was important for people to embrace all kinds of organ transplants because certain conditions and sicknesses could only be rectified through organ transplant.
Dr Chiluba said last year the institution was scheduled to conduct kidney transplants on four patients but the number rose to 10.
He said later there was another outcry by people on social media who were skeptical about how the whole transplant process would be undertaken.
“It’s not that we are listening to social media, but we are listening to the voices of the people and we need to hear what their views are over the first ever transplants. The process will not be disturbed but we need to take care of people’s views,” he said.
Dr Chiluba said there was need to sensitize the people on what was actually to be considered for the transplant and also its importance.
He said medical practitioners needed to start with themselves like acquainting the health workers on the process to ensure they delivered the right message to patients.
Dr Chiluba said after acquainting health workers, there was need to hold a stakeholder meeting with all relevant stakeholders to ensure the public had the right information on the transplant process.
He said it was cheaper for a kidney transplant to be conducted as opposed to using dialysis machines because they weakened the quality of life adding that an individual could live with one kidney and so conducting transplants would be a better solution because a kidney was needed for a normal life.
Dr Chiluba added that there was need for the public to have confidence in local medical personnel and that was the reason a meeting for medical practitioners and relevant stakeholders was needed.