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 TRANSPLANT 

Both the recipient and donor in Uganda's successful first ever kidney transplant are "recovering well" following the four-hour procedure conducted at Mulago National Specialized Hospital in Kampala mid-this week.

Health minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng told a press conference on Saturday at Mulago that the two brothers are doing fine.

The transplant was performed on Wednesday (December 20) by Ugandan surgeons led by Prof. Frank Asiimwe, in collaboration with a visiting team from Yashoda Hospital in India led by Dr. A. Sashi Kiran, a consultant nephrologist.

Four hours later, the team managed to achieve what had never been successfully done before in Uganda.

The recipient, Mark Maurice Kiyemba of Munyonyo, Kampala, had been on dialysis for two years.

Dialysis involves removing waste products and excess fluid from the blood when the kidneys stop working properly. It often involves diverting blood to a machine to be cleaned.

Recent studies indicate a 13% prevalence of kidney disease in Uganda's population, ranging from mild to end-stage.

Dialysis is required for end-stage cases, and currently, approximately 2% of the population has end-stage kidney disease.

Kiyemba was among a group of kidney disease patients taken through pre-transplant counselling and processing that also involves the donor and next of kin.

"On December 20, one patient was transplanted," Aceng told reporters.

"The donor and patient are recovering very well. Consequently, the other patients will be worked on as well."

She said the Government footed the bills of the landmark kidney transplant.

On March 15 this year, President Yoweri Museveni approved the Ugandan Human and Organ Tissue Transplant Bill, paving the way for specialists to initiate the transplant programme.

Although this legislation encompasses various organ transplants, this particular achievement focuses on kidney transplantation.

Dr Asiimwe, a consultant urologist and transplant surgeon who led the Mulago team, revealed that the transplanted kidney demonstrated exceptional functionality, excreting urine in large amounts shortly after the procedure.

He said the recipient is currently producing over 350mls of urine per hour, while the donor is also recovering satisfactorily.

Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, Health Minister, posing for a picture with Mulago hospital health workers who participated in the Kidney transplant and specialists from Yashoda Hospital. (Photo by Violet Nabatanzi)

Museveni hails team

Meanwhile, on Friday, President Yoweri Museveni met the group of surgeons at State House, Entebbe.

Health minister Aceng, who led the team for the meeting, informed the President about the feat, saying recipient Kiyemba received the kidney donated by his brother, Steven Mpagi.

Museveni congratulated the surgeons as well as the doctors from India for the successful operation. 

He also pledged to support them to achieve their desired goals of self-sustainability in both human resource and the required equipment.

Aceng thanked the President for supporting the health ministry and requested for additional assistance in the areas of training more kidney specialists and transplant surgeons as well as the provision of modern equipment.