(ORDO NEWS) — Statistics for the United States showed that on the days of motorcycle races and biker festivals, much more donor organs come to local clinics.
However, the number of patients who need transplantation is growing even more noticeably.
Big festivals, races and runs attract many motorcycle enthusiasts. Daytona Bike Week and Sturgis Motorcycle Rally held in the USA attract half a million guests each.
They bring considerable income to local budgets, but they also pose a danger to participants. Statistics show that such events are associated with a sharp jump in the availability of donors and donor organs entering clinics.
Anupam Jena and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School analyzed statistics on transplants performed in the United States from 2005 to 2021.
The scientists compared the numbers obtained during the days of the seven largest annual motorcycle festivals in the country, as well as four weeks before and after them.
We looked at a total of 10,798 donors and 35,329 recipients who passed through clinics in regions where biker meetings were held.
The work showed that the period of motor gathering festivals is associated with a sharp – by 21 percent – increase in the number of donors whose organs are available for transplant.
At the same time, the number of patients who need such an operation has increased even more noticeably, by 26 percent.
The authors of the article separately confirmed that such jumps are associated with frequent accidents. Meanwhile, the demographic and clinical characteristics of donors and recipients remain within the normal range.
“The jumps in donation and transplantation that we have demonstrated are depressing, although hardly unexpected. They point to a systematic failure to prevent loss of life, and this is a tragedy.
At the same time, transplantologists working in the areas of such events should be prepared for an increase in the number of donors in appropriate periods,” said David Cron, one of the authors of the study.
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