Donations of organs up nationally

China among leaders in transplant technology, senior health official says

The number of people who donated organs after death in China this year reached 4,207 at the end of October. And the number of individual organs was much higher - 11,896 - exceeding last year's donations, according to China's top health authority.

Last year 4,080 people in China donated 11,037 organs, Guo Yanhong, deputy chief for medical administration and supervision at the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said at a work conference on organ transplants in Beijing on Thursday.

Huang Jiefu, chairman of the China National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee and former vice-minister of health, said the total number of people who have made organ donations after death in China is expected to exceed 5,000 year this year. If you count live donors - people who donate a kidney to a family member, for example - the total number of donors could hit 7,000 by the end of this year.

When China banned the harvesting of organs from the bodies of executed prisoners in 2015, voluntary donations became the only legitimate source of organs in the country.

China currently ranks second in the number of organ donors in the world. Last year, the United States had more than 9,000 donors, Huang said.

China could rank first globally in organs donated in the next three to four years, considering the rapid development of the practice over the past several years, he added.