Kidney transplantation in emerging countries: do we know all issues?

Although it seems that end stage renal disease (ESRD) therapies gradually become more accessible in the developing world, yet, the vast majority of people living in those areas do not have access to dialysis and especially transplantation because of the economic and technological inequality as compared with the developed world. Despite the great advantage in survival and considerable socioeconomic advantages of transplantation vs. dialysis, there is a widespread recognition that the growing gap between organ supply and demand will continue into the foreseeable future. Several reasons might be considered in this regard as: insufficient data on the topic in the public domain, inadequate governmental financial resources, lack of public awareness, education and motivation for organ donation as well as the low number of organized teams of transplant surgeons and nephrologists, and lack of organizational infrastructure, i.e. coordinators. The defined priorities for the future in terms of improving living donor transplantation, composition of the official waiting lists and registries of transplant recipients and living donors and the role of transplant professionals have been discussed. In conclusion, whatever the governmental support is, as professionals, we should just reinforce our efforts to help our patients as best as we can in the current situation.