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8/7/2018 Scarcity in skin donors can cost lives

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TUT (https://www.tut.ac.za) / News and Press (/news-and-press/news) / Article

Scarcity in skin donors can cost lives

02 August 2018

At the start of Organ and Tissue donor month, the country faces a serious shortage of skin to treat burn victims.
In a drive to create public awareness about the importance of Organ and Tissue donation, especially skin
donation, the Tshwane University of Technology’s Centre for Tissue Engineering (CTE), in collaboration with the
organ Donor Foundation (ODF) and National Press Club, hosted a media brie ng on 1 August.

Cleo Ndhlovu, CTE Manager, cited gures
by Statistic SA according to which many
people die while on an organ donor

waiting list. On average, 110 people are
added to an organ donor waiting list
every day, while 21 people die daily while
waiting for an organ.

Since the inception of the skin banking
activities of the Tshwane University of
Technology’s Centre for Tissue
Engineering (CTE) in 2016, many lives
have been saved through the use of

donor skin. The world average of deaths
due to burns is 5 in 100 000; however, in
South Africa that number is 8.5 in 100
“Spinnekop” Eric Kevin Nefdt, Jooste Vermeulen, Director of Communication
at ODF and Cleo Ndhlovu, CTE Manager, addressing members of the media. 000. While 1.6 million South Africans
su er burn wounds a year, 268 severe
cases are reported every month.

Jooste Vermeulen, Director of Communication at the Organ Donor Foundation (ODF), added that thousands of South
African’s are currently waiting for a life-saving organ transplants. ”It is worrying that one percent of the country’s
population is registered to be organ donors,” he said.

The Organ Donor Foundation (ODF) partnered with the CTE in developing and launching the ULUNTU project, aimed at
educating learners, sta at clinics and hospitals as well as other relevant organisations about the need for organ and
tissue donation.

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