Nigeria’s health ministry has warned of an increase in illegal harvest and transplant of human organs, after Egyptian authorities prosecuted 41 people for illegal trafficking in human kidneys.
The office of Egypt’s prosecutor-general has issued names of private hospitals in Giza area of Cairo complicit in the trafficking of human kidneys.
· Dar al-shefa in Helwan, Cairo
· Al-Bashar Specialist Hospital in Faisal, Giza
· Al-Amal Centre for General Surgery in Maurinteya, Giza
· Dar Ibn Al-Nafis Hospital, Giza
Copies of the letter signed by FMOH director of hospital services Wapada Balami, have been circulating on social media.
The health ministry has written the Nigerian Medical Association to warn all doctors in relevant specialties to “be aware so that Nigerians will be circumspect while embarking on medical tourism in other countries.”
The letter raises concern about patients possibly seeking treatment abroad and their doctors referring them to any complicit hospital.
Patients stand the risk of getting their organs illegally trafficked or losing their lives to the growing trade in illegal organ harvest and transplant.
“If some of our colleagues are in that trade, that is very disheartening,” NMA president Mike Ogirinma told Daily Trust.
“For us as an association, we may not have such powers to stop it but we can investigate.”
But NMA is handicapped to sanction erring doctors.
The regulatory body, the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, which hosts a tribunal to try erring doctors and dentists cannot constitute a board since it was dissolved in 2015.
“The organ left for us is the regulatory body, MDCN. Professional misconduct or negligence are taken before it. Unfortunately that council was dissolved immediately this administration came in, and NMA has been pushing for it to be reconstituted.”
