Selangor Plans Organ Donation Campaign To Boost National Transplant Agenda

SHAH ALAM, Dec 31 (Bernama) -- The Selangor State Government is planning to roll out a public campaign to encourage organ donation next year, in line with the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) efforts to strengthen Malaysia’s organ donation and transplant system.

State Public Health and Environment Committee chairman Jamaliah Jamaluddin said the initiative is driven by Malaysia’s persistently low organ donation rate, which requires coordinated action at all levels.

“The percentage of organ donation is very low and needs serious attention. So, we plan to launch a campaign next year to encourage Selangor residents to donate their organs.

“The campaign will not only focus on donor registration but also on public awareness, particularly encouraging families to respect an individual’s wish to donate,” she told Bernama.

Prior to this, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad reportedly said that organ transplantation would be repositioned as a national agenda, in line with the MOH’s move to restructure the National Transplant Centre (NTC) as a central body to drive policy, administration and nationwide coordination.

Meanwhile, a health systems expert and Angsana Health chief executive officer, Dr Khor Swee Kheng, said Malaysia’s public hospitals have sufficient transplant expertise, but the main challenge remains the shortage of organ supply.

“Transplant expertise exists and is ready in public hospitals, but the organ shortage requires a more systemic solution,” he said, noting that Malaysia lags behind internationally, particularly in living-donor kidney transplants.

“In Saudi Arabia, living-donor kidney transplants are performed at a rate of 198 per million population, compared with only about 57 per million in Malaysia,” he added.

Meanwhile, a public health specialist from Universiti Malaya Faculty of Medicine, Prof Dr Rafdzah Ahmad Zaki, said making organ transplantation a national agenda is a positive step, but success depends on community engagement, robust data systems and public trust.

She warned that although donor registrations are high, failure to translate them into actual donations could prolong the country’s organ shortage.

To address this, she said Malaysia must prioritise early donor identification, deploy trained donation coordinators, build community trust and strengthen system coordination.

“Improving public perception of organ donation goes beyond awareness. It requires trust-building, encouraging family discussions, and a consistent, empathetic service system.

“A realistic, high-impact step is increasing the conversion rate of potential donors into actual donors through better early identification and referral systems, as well as placing trained donation coordinators in all major hospitals,” she added.

-- BERNAMA