Some 9,500 people will need organ transplants in Italy this year but just over 3,000 will receive organs due to a lack of donors, according to data from the National Transplant Center (CNT).
''We need more donors and for this reason it is very important that national institutions and associations play a role in explaining the importance of donations to the public,'' observed CNT Director Alessandro Nanni Costa on Monday, during the presentation of the IX edition of National Organ Donation Days, May 4-11.
''On a European level, Italy is above average for the number of its organ donors, but this is not high enough,'' Nanni Costa said.
Italy currently has some 21 donors per one million residents compared to a European average of 18.5 donors.
Spain is first in the world with 34 donors per one million residents, while France is ahead of Italy with 23.5 donors.
Italy remains ahead of Germany, with 16, and Britain, 14.
''It is important that people know about the high quality of our own transplant system, which recently recorded a world first: a liver transplant on a pregnant Greek woman who had contracted an acute case of hepatitis,'' Nanni Costa said.
''In order to carry out something like this means that we can offer not only top quality services, but that we can help other countries which do not have a high number of donors,'' he added.
