‘Probe body parts rumour’

By DAVID KANDUZA –

AN anthropologist has said the Government should not ignore rumours of an alleged syndicate linking major public hospitals in Zambia to the sale of body parts for transplants to South African hospitals.
The anthropologist who declined to be named was reacting to an article by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which stated that police in India had arrested the suspected leader of an illegal human kidney trading gang in one of the country’s leading hospital.
According to the article police led a gang that lured poor people to sell their kidneys, which were then sold for huge profits.
It is believed that the suspected gang members forged papers to dupe doctors into operating on people in the belief that they were donating the kidneys to their relatives.
Eight people including five employees of Delhi’s Apollo Hospital were arrested in connection with the case.
Others were three donors, including a couple, who had sold their kidneys to alleged gang members to pay off their loans.
The anthropologist said the Government should take keen interest of such matters having public hospitals in Zambia linked to the sale of body parts for transplants to South African hospitals.
“The Government should take keen interest in this issue,” she said.
Recently the Sunday Times revealed that major public hospitals in Zambia were allegedly linked to the sale of body parts.
In Zambia thousands of patients die each year because of an inadequate supply of organs as patients needing kidneys wait years in hope of donors.
The illegal trade in kidneys had risen to such a level that an estimated 10,000 black market operations involving purchased human organs now take place annually, according to the World Health Organisation experts.
A chronic shortage of transplant organs is fuelling a lucrative black market trade in body parts across India according to the BBC.