Spain leads in organ transplants for 27th consecutive year

Spain led the world in the number of organ transplants in 2018 for the 27th successive year, according to data published by the Spanish Ministry of Health, Consumption and Social Welfare, along with the Spanish National Transplant Organization (ONT) on Monday.

Spain ended 2018 with an average of 48 organ donors per million inhabitants and a level of 114 transplants per million inhabitants, the highest levels in the world.

The data also means that Spain has seen an important increase in the number of donors over the past 5 years, passing from 34 donors per million inhabitants in 2014 to last year's 48.

"The ONT celebrates its 30th anniversary breaking its own record, by reaching a level of 48 donors per million people and by carrying out over 5,300 organ transplants, with new records in the number of renal and lung transplants,"Health Minister Maria Luisa Carcedo highlighted.

The number of donors in Spain compares favorably with the level of 31.7 donors per million inhabitants in the United States and the European Union average of 22.3 per million.

"There is a huge difference with respect to other nations, but the capacity to improve on that is limited and we also hope that by preventing illnesses, we will also see the demand (for transplants) fall in the coming years," commented Carcedo.

57 percent of organ donors in Spain were aged over 60, while 30 percent were over 70 and 10 percent aged over 80, while 62 percent of donations came after heart failures and 16.2 percent after the donors suffered a fatal brain injury.