As part of ‘World Liver Day’, observed on April 19, Bollywood actor Sonu Sood has joined hands with an initiative to provide subsidised liver transplant surgeries to 50 underprivileged children. He will also be part of a drive to raise awareness about the alarming rate of increasing cases of liver disease in India.
The actor, who has collaborated with Aster Volunteers, the CSR programme of Aster DM Healthcare, will encourage people to take proactive efforts to manage their liver health.
Liver failure owing to the unavailability of viable organ donors is one of the main causes of death from liver disease. Through the Aster Volunteers’ initiative, 50 underprivileged children, in need of liver transplants, will receive care at the multi-organ transplant centre located at Aster CMI and Aster RV Hospitals in Bengaluru and Aster Medcity and Aster MIMS Hospital, Calicut in Kerala.
Although liver disease claims over 2,00,000 lives every year in India, only 1,500-2,000 transplants are conducted. Nearly 10% of these transplants are in children.
One of the key reasons is the inability to afford the high costs associated with transplant cases. In addition to this, limited availability of viable donors for transplant is a major challenge.
Speaking on the initiative here, Azad Moopen, founder-chairman and Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare, said, “It is an unfortunate reality that life-saving treatments like liver transplants are expensive and unaffordable to those in dire need. In association with Mr. Sood, our objective is to raise awareness and seek support from like-minded people for this noble cause. We intend to provide free and subsidised liver transplant surgery to 50 children from the underprivileged population in this campaign”.
Mr. Sood said that rising cases of liver disease, increasing fatality due to unavailability of viable donors, and inability of the needy to afford transplants are causes of concern.
“We need to collectively come together to raise awareness on the same and help the needy. I hope my voice reaches out to those families whose children are in line for liver transplants but have not been able to do so due to unaffordability,” he added.
