In the US, the number of organs for transplantation has increased, but drug addicts are becoming donors.

Researchers have found that organ transplants have increased in people who died from drug overdose across the country.

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In 2016, 3533 transplants were performed using organs of overdose victims, compared to 149 in such transplants in 2000. In 2000, overdose victims accounted for 1,1% of all donors. In 2017, they were 13,4%.

There were “record numbers of organ donations and transplants for each of the four most common organs—kidney, liver, heart and lung”—in 2017, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

Although the organs belong to those who led a risky lifestyle, people who receive such transplants do not have more negative consequences over time.

This is definitely good news for more than 114 000 people, who, according to experts United States for Organ Sharing, were expecting a transplant on Tuesday, April 17, although researchers admit that there is a note.

"This is not an ideal solution to the organ shortage problem," lead researcher Christine Durand writes in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

Beginning in the 2000 year, an 200 000 man died in the United States from an opioid epidemic. This is more than three times the number of deaths in the United States during the Vietnam War.

The researchers used data from the Scientific Registry of transplant recipients, which detail many aspects of the transplant system.

They were able to identify more 7 313 donors who died from a drug overdose, resulting in almost 20 000 transplants being used, according to CNN. From 2000 to 2017 year, the number of donors who died from overdose increased by 17%. For comparison, donation from people who died from injuries increased by 1,6%.

Before transplanting organs from drug addicts, researchers carry out screening tests to eliminate the risk of hepatitis C infection from a donor organ after transplantation.

“Screening tests have improved significantly since the late 1990s,” Duran said in Live Science. “Testing methods include not only tests for antibodies to infections, but also what we call nucleic acid testing—testing for the virus in the blood—so we can identify donors who have recently been infected.”

Sometimes those who received organs from people at high risk had good results. All due to the fact that people who died from an overdose were younger and did not suffer from diseases such as hypertension, diabetes or a heart attack.

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