As many as 459 persons in the Mangaluru Zone, comprising Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Chikkamagaluru, Davangere, Shivamogga districts, were waiting for organs, said Dakshina Kannada District Health and Family Welfare Officer H.R. Thimmaiah in Mangaluru on Wednesday.

Talking to reporters about the organ donation day being celebrated in Mangaluru on August 1, Dr. Thimmaiah said of the 459 waitlisted in the portal of Jeevasarthakathe Human Organs Transplantation programme, 446 want kidneys and 13 need a liver.

Dr. Thimmaiah said so far, there have been 41 cadaver donations of organs in Dakshina Kannada. A total of 115 organs and 52 tissues, including skin, heart valves and cornea, have been transplanted. There were a total of 10 private hospitals in Mangaluru and two in Shivamogga which were acting both as organ retrieval and transplantation centres.

Superintendent of Government Wenlock Hospital D.S. Shivaprakash said the hospital was presently an organ retrieval centre. It was proposed to become an organ transplantation centre shortly, he said.