THE Health Ministry’s efforts to digitalise organ donation pledges is proving to be a success as Malaysia reached new heights in terms of new organ pledgers. 

According to the Health Ministry’s KKMNow portal, the number of new organ pledgers in the country for this year has reached 55,612 as of Tuesday, the highest in a single year since the National Transplant Resources Centre started collecting and storing data in 1997. 

National Kidney Foundation Malaysia chief executive officer Khor Xin Yun said the ministry’s digitalisation efforts have certainly aided the increase in numbers, which she said was very encouraging. 

“Everybody has access to the MySejahtera app and it has eased the processes. It is definitely a good start to push for organ donation awareness in the country,” Khor told The Malaysian Insight.

On September 6, MySejahtera launched a digital Organ Donor Pledge feature on the app and within a week, 4,500 Malaysians pledged to donate their organs. 

On a monthly basis, the number of new pledgers spiked in September and October, before declining in November and this month. 

The number of organ pledgers by month was 11,645 in September, 14,553 (October), 7,328 (November) and 3,482 (December).

A reason she cited for the decline was how fewer people are using the MySejahtera app.

“Nowadays, fewer people access the MySejahtera app. There is no need for them to scan whenever they (visit) premises.

“I think the (number of) active users in MySejahtera has dropped, which has caused the (organ pledger) numbers to decline as well. 

“Given that, there will be fewer people accessing the feature. Hence, more promotion needs to be done to reach out to the community at the grassroots level,” she said.

Start them young

Khor also said awareness programmes should begin in schools and universities. 

“What we understand from the grassroots level is that there are still some misconceptions about organ donation, especially from a religious point of view and even from the common people.

“They would still have certain misconceptions. The ministry with concerted efforts from civil society groups need to provide more education at the grassroots level, even at community schools and universities.

“It has to start from young – among school children, adolescents and university students. We can always start educating them about the importance of organ donation and debunk some misconceptions among the community,” Khor said.

She said including such content into school syllabi and co-curricular activities could help enlighten the younger generation. 

“We have to go into schools and include the content as part of their syllabus.

“A standard syllabus is important but at the same time, social causes like organ donation and all that should be included in school syllabi and co-curricula, so from a young age, they are aware and they are, in a way, educated on this matter. 

“They would know the right information rather than be influenced by the misconceptions out there,” she said. 

In the past year, the highest number of organ pledgers, by age, came from the 20-39 age group, while the figures gradually decreased for those aged above 40.

The figures are low for those aged between 10 and 19.

For the 20-29 age group, 22,168 people have pledged to donate their organs, while there are 16,528 pledgers from the 30-39 age group.

Target the elderly

To encourage organ pledging among elderly groups, Khor said there should be targeted demographic-based efforts. 

“We have to dissect the details, like where they are from, what they do, are they urban B40, and more. 

“People seem to have different perceptions towards organ donations based on their education and health literacy. 

“Hence, there should be different strategies to reach out to different groups of people depending on their current understanding, health literacy, and accessibility to different community groups,” she said. 

Khor said running promotional campaigns on social media platforms are seen to be productive, apart from reaching out to schools and universities on organ donation awareness. 

The National Kidney Foundation Malaysia has been actively promoting organ donation through community campaigns at public places and on social media. 

Based on the data provided, 2.6% of the Kuala Lumpur population has pledged to donate their organs, putting it in the top spot, followed by Penang (1.5%) and Selangor (1.2%). 

Kelantan has the lowest percentage of pledges to donate organs as only 0.4% of its population said they would, with figures in Sabah (0.5%) and Sarawak (0.6%) only slightly higher. 

As of December 15, 255,427 people in the country have pledged to donate their organs. 

Statistics showed 10,054 people are waiting for organ donation in Malaysia, while only 2,764 transplants involving donated organs have been performed since 1997. 

Malaysia has one of the lowest transplant rates in the world, with 2.84 transplants per million of its population. – December 29, 2022.