Dr. Jalaleddine Zaydi, professor of cardiac and vascular surgery and director general of the National Center for the Promotion of Organ Transplantation, affirmed that Tunisia recorded, in 2025, a notable improvement in the rate of organ harvesting and transplants, thanks to growing awareness among citizens of the importance of donation.
During a press conference organized by the Center on the occasion of World Organ Donation Awareness Day, Zaydi clarified that the recent period has seen more than nine organ harvesting from brain-dead donors, allowing the completion of more than 20 kidney transplants, 6 heart transplants and 5 liver transplants.
He added that the number of patients waiting for kidney transplants currently exceeds 1,600 people, while around 50 patients are waiting for heart transplants. He stressed that kidney transplantation remains the most common in Tunisia, while liver transplants remain limited due to the lack of compatible donors.
The director of the Center indicated that Tunisia is one of the rare Arab countries to perform transplants from brain-dead donors, noting that the national average does not exceed 1.5 donors per million inhabitants, compared to 70 donors in Spain – a gap which illustrates the scale of the challenge in promoting the culture of organ donation.
Zaydi revealed that the Center is currently working on new lung and pancreas transplant projects, calling on citizens to express their willingness to donate their organs after death, a gesture that represents hope of life for hundreds of waiting patients.
In the same context, Abdelkrim Saoud, head of the national identification department at the General Directorate of Technical and Scientific Police at the Ministry of the Interior, affirmed that the ministry has been working, for several years, to facilitate the registration procedures for organ donors in collaboration with the National Center for the Promotion of Organ Transplantation.
