Growing waiting lists for kidney transplants

Waiting lists for kidney transplants in the Czech Republic are getting longer each year, but remain shorter than the European average, the Transplantations Coordinating Centre reports. The centre’s director, Pavel Březovský, says that the list increased by roughly 60 people to 651 last year compared to the year before. The reason for the discrepancy with Europe, he says, is that fact that haemodialysis centres in Europe put people on the writing list earlier than in the Czech Republic. Physicians are marking the 50th anniversary of the first kidney transplant in Czechoslovakia and have launched a campaign to encourage living donors.