Guyana is preparing to introduce deceased donor transplantation and develop local laboratory testing to match organ donors with recipients, Chief Medical Officer Dr Narine Singh has said.
According to a Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) statement, Singh outlined the progress and priorities of the Human Organ and Tissue Transplant Agency during a presentation at the 19th Guyana Medical Research Conference.
He said preparations for deceased donor transplantation would require coordinated work by emergency departments, intensive care units, anaesthetists, surgeons and laboratory personnel.
Systems must also be established to identify potential donors, obtain consent, retrieve and transport organs, match donors with recipients and provide long-term care.
Singh said clinical protocols had been developed for determining brain death, evaluating donors and recipients, allocating organs and conducting transplants. Healthcare professionals have received training, while partnerships with institutions in Spain and Brazil are supporting the development of local expertise.
Another priority is establishing Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) testing at the National Public Health Reference Laboratory. The testing helps determine compatibility between donors and recipients.
According to the hospital, samples previously had to be sent to Miami. Equipment and supplies have since been acquired, and personnel are undergoing specialised training in Brazil to conduct HLA testing and cross-matching locally.
The laboratory initiative was previously announced in March 2025, when the Ministry of Health reported acquiring equipment and reagents costing US$150,000. Fifteen laboratory personnel received training in February that year. The latest GPHC statement did not specify when routine local testing would begin.
Singh noted that Guyana had performed kidney transplants since 2008, while the transplant agency began operating in 2023, providing formal regulatory oversight. GPHC was certified as the country’s first kidney transplant centre in March 2024.
He stressed that the programme must protect living donors, maintain ethical standards and allocate organs fairly, irrespective of wealth, social standing or other personal circumstances.
Public education would also be important in building confidence in organ donation, he said. The long-term objective was a sustainable national programme accessible to patients throughout Guyana, including those outside the coastal regions.
The preparations follow recent developments in living donor transplantation. Kiskadee Watch reported on October 23 that two West Coast Demerara men had received kidneys through a paired exchange after their wives proved incompatible as donors for their own husbands.
Each woman instead donated a kidney to the other’s husband. The operations took place in September, and both men, aged 31 and 38, were subsequently discharged with good kidney function and no longer required dialysis, according to GPHC.
In August, Kiskadee Watch also reported that the transplant agency had engaged GPHC, St Joseph Mercy Hospital and Woodlands Hospital on certification requirements under the Human Organ and Tissue Transplant Act No. 1 of 2022. These include qualified personnel, suitable infrastructure, clinical protocols and multidisciplinary transplant teams.
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