KUALA LUMPUR: About 100,000 organ transplants are performed worldwide every year, two-thirds of them being kidney transplants.

Dr Luc Noel of the World Health Organisation said, however, only 10 per cent of the global need for organ transplants was available.

This forced people to look at other ways of getting organs.

For example, he said, 10 per cent of the kidney transplants worldwide were performed under "transplant tourism".

Transplant tourism involves not only the purchase and sale of organs, but also other elements relating to the commercialisation of organ transplantation.

The international movement of potential recipients is often facilitated by intermediaries and healthcare providers who arrange the travel and recruit donors.

Live donors, for instance, have reportedly been brought from the Republic of Moldova to the United States and from Nepal to India.

A WHO survey in 2007 also showed that in some cases, both recipients and donors from different countries moved to a third country.

More than 100 illegal kidney transplants were performed at the St Augustine Hospital in South Africa in 2001 and 2002.

Most of the recipients came from Israel, while the donors were from eastern Europe and Brazil.

Dr Noel said the Internet had often been used to attract foreign patients.

Several websites offer all-inclusive "transplant packages". The price of a renal transplant ranges from US$70,000 ($102,312) to US$160,000.

In China, kidneys can be bought for between US$70,000 and US$120,000, pancreas US$110,000, lung US$50,000 and heart US$130,000. In Pakistan, kidneys are sold for US$14,000 and in the Philippines, US$85,000.

Dr Noel said WHO condemned transplant tourism, commercialisation of organs and trafficking of human beings for organs.

He attributed the rise in such activities to loopholes and lack of legislation in poor and developing countries.

"Countries such as China, Pakistan, India and the Philippines are taking proactive measures to crack down on the network and stop transplant tourism."

He said governments must update their legal frameworks and create more awareness of organ donation.

"Everyone has got to play a role as the organs of a deceased donor will save lives. People die every day with functional organs and these are going to be buried or cremated. Why not donate."