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Organ traders hunting for donors in Region 8
Maasin City - A syndicate suspected of selling human kidneys to rich buyers in Manila’s plush hospitals is reportedly monitoring isolated barangays in Eastern Visayas looking for young female victims who they could entice to Manila where they would sell their kidneys for up to a million pesos.
The Department of Health on Tuesday admitted to the rampant illegal traffic in human organs and pledged to start drafting regulatory rules for the growing market. Much of the trade in human organs, especially kidneys, takes place in the black market according to Health Undersecretary Jade del Mundo.
He cited a recent University of the Philippines study which claimed that in one slum area in Manila, there were 3,000 men and women who admitted selling one of their kidneys for P70,000 to P120,000. The study warned that poverty has forced many of the poor to treat their organs as commodities.
A report in a Japanese newspaper recently said that if the system of organ donation were regulated, the Philippines would witness a rush of foreign patients from Japan where over 10,000 people are awaiting kidney transplants.
The National Bureau of Investigation launched a probe last December on the sale of kidneys through a third party to patients of the Saint Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City.
An NBI source, who requested anonymity, said the probe which stemmed from an entrapment operation last December 14 could involve more than a dozen doctors and other prominent hospitals.
The entrapment led to the arrest of a middleman in the illegal sale of organs. The NBI agents found six male potential organ donors in a filthy Taguig shack where they also found documents involving 40-kidney donor operations since 2005.
He said many of the files involved operations done at the Saint Luke’s Medical Center but that hospital officials pledged to cooperate with them.
Republic Act 9208 or Anti-trafficking of Persons Act of 2003 forbids the recruitment, hiring, transport or abduction of persons for the purpose of removal or sale of organs. (By Clint Cabaluna)
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Nonsmokers Sleep Better
People who smoke are four times more likely to wake up tired than nonsmokers according to a February 4, 2008, American College of Chest Physicians news release, anda study published in the February issue of the journal Chest.
Recent research found that smokers not only find it harder to get to sleep, but also spend less time in deep sleep than nonsmokers. Research suggests that smokers don’t get to sleep quickly because of the stimulating effect of nicotine in their systems.
Moreover, as the night progresses, smokers experience mild withdrawal symptoms, resulting in additional sleep disturbances that tend to leave the smoker feeling bushed in the morning.
These findings were the result of a study led by Dr. Naresh M. Punjabi of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland.
His group first looked at a group of 6,441 volunteers who had taken part in a national study of cardiovascular health. The researchers intention was to find healthy smokers; that is, a group of smokers who did not suffer from emphysema, heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes or any other illness. The task proved difficult because from the entire group, using the preset guidelines, only 40 smokers fit the healthy profile.
Researchers paired these 40 healthy smokers, who incidentally smoked an average of 25 cigarettes a day, with 40 healthy nonsmokers. Both groups were then supplied at home sleep-study equipment that, among other things, was capable of measuring and tracking their brain waves as they slept.
What the study found was that the sleeping smokers’ brain waves were of a higher-frequency and faster rate than their nonsmoking counterparts. Patterns of high-frequency, fast brain waves are associated with light, poor quality sleep. The nonsmokers’ brain wave
patterns, on the other hand, revealed longer periods of deep nourishing sleep; the kind of sleep that promotes growth, wound healing, and hormone secretion; in other words, patterns that produce a good night’s sleep.
The group was also queried about how they felt they had slept, and if they woke up feeling rested. Only five percent of smokers felt they had slept well; whereas 23 percent of the nonsmokers responded that they had slept well, and that they woke up rested. The study points out that the smoker is deprived of the restorative effects of sleep, which is just one more reason to encourage smokers to quit. Dr. Punjabi hopes that this, and continuing research, will lead the way to better products to help the smoker get a good night’s sleep because when smokers are tying to quit, waking up tired everyday makes quitting just that much harder.
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