The Prague Post - Pakistan proud of pig-to-human heart transplant pioneer

EUR -
AED 4.259901
AFN 80.025133
ALL 97.711411
AMD 445.495328
ANG 2.075662
AOA 1063.520725
ARS 1461.313491
AUD 1.780282
AWG 2.087609
AZN 1.968524
BAM 1.94273
BBD 2.343335
BDT 141.011352
BGN 1.953213
BHD 0.437255
BIF 3293.782618
BMD 1.159783
BND 1.486897
BOB 8.020045
BRL 6.467532
BSD 1.160592
BTN 99.570146
BWP 15.606011
BYN 3.798148
BYR 22731.739193
BZD 2.331217
CAD 1.590764
CDF 3347.132681
CHF 0.930447
CLF 0.029229
CLP 1121.66032
CNY 8.319072
CNH 8.33432
COP 4675.849165
CRC 585.362002
CUC 1.159783
CUP 30.734239
CVE 110.817595
CZK 24.668653
DJF 206.117012
DKK 7.463421
DOP 69.917517
DZD 150.580385
EGP 57.304162
ERN 17.396739
ETB 158.368742
FJD 2.616932
FKP 0.863296
GBP 0.866503
GEL 3.142858
GGP 0.863296
GHS 12.064878
GIP 0.863296
GMD 82.921733
GNF 10039.078744
GTQ 8.907078
GYD 242.715052
HKD 9.104265
HNL 30.560756
HRK 7.536244
HTG 152.384837
HUF 400.562283
IDR 18870.590921
ILS 3.904913
IMP 0.863296
INR 99.731505
IQD 1519.315222
IRR 48855.842821
ISK 142.398459
JEP 0.863296
JMD 185.472243
JOD 0.822297
JPY 172.727006
KES 150.19356
KGS 101.419051
KHR 4662.325592
KMF 492.472652
KPW 1043.831738
KRW 1609.047538
KWD 0.354517
KYD 0.967193
KZT 610.393603
LAK 25010.712255
LBP 103858.532609
LKR 349.419297
LRD 233.116082
LSL 20.759492
LTL 3.424537
LVL 0.701541
LYD 6.28025
MAD 10.50937
MDL 19.614047
MGA 5137.837115
MKD 61.148625
MMK 2435.175411
MNT 4157.64358
MOP 9.384168
MRU 46.066614
MUR 52.613556
MVR 17.855316
MWK 2013.96807
MXN 21.887951
MYR 4.919785
MZN 74.179556
NAD 20.762149
NGN 1773.840811
NIO 42.676024
NOK 11.900848
NPR 159.312234
NZD 1.950836
OMR 0.445929
PAB 1.160592
PEN 4.136366
PGK 4.700016
PHP 65.873291
PKR 330.131936
PLN 4.262686
PYG 8986.543412
QAR 4.222308
RON 5.077994
RSD 117.132282
RUB 90.548819
RWF 1663.128265
SAR 4.350035
SBD 9.648881
SCR 16.405624
SDG 696.458003
SEK 11.285259
SGD 1.491185
SHP 0.911407
SLE 26.091309
SLL 24320.066057
SOS 662.811839
SRD 43.450673
STD 24005.158474
SVC 10.154685
SYP 15079.319791
SZL 20.771534
THB 37.819325
TJS 11.095158
TMT 4.070837
TND 3.364819
TOP 2.716321
TRY 46.644026
TTD 7.878994
TWD 34.101118
TZS 3029.935605
UAH 48.532996
UGX 4160.013685
USD 1.159783
UYU 47.301779
UZS 14735.037795
VES 132.428363
VND 30313.818018
VUV 138.597684
WST 3.182696
XAF 651.573567
XAG 0.030685
XAU 0.000348
XCD 3.134371
XDR 0.810637
XOF 650.638158
XPF 119.331742
YER 279.914227
ZAR 20.806689
ZMK 10439.426614
ZMW 26.489791
ZWL 373.449528
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Pakistan proud of pig-to-human heart transplant pioneer
Pakistan proud of pig-to-human heart transplant pioneer

Pakistan proud of pig-to-human heart transplant pioneer

Friends and former classmates of the Pakistan-born surgeon behind the world's first pig-to-human heart transplant say they earmarked him for greatness from his medical school days.

Text size:

Karachi-born Muhammad Mansoor Mohiuddin made headlines last week as the co-founder of the US university programme that successfully transplanted the heart of a genetically modified pig into a gravely ill American man.

While hailed as a medical breakthrough, the procedure also raised ethical questions -- particularly among some Jews and Muslims, who consider pigs to be unclean and avoid pork products.

None of that worried Mohiuddin's friends and former colleagues in Pakistan, who remember him as an ace student with a passion for medicine.

"He would be so interested, always there, always available and always ready to get involved in surgery," said Muneer Amanullah, a specialist who attended Karachi's Dow Medical College with Mohiuddin in the 1980s.

College vice-chancellor Muhammad Saeed Qureshi said pride in Mohiuddin's achievement had flooded the campus.

"There was exhilaration that this has been done by a graduate from this college," he told AFP.

Mohiuddin was quick to share the limelight with a team of 50 from the University of Maryland Medical School.

"They were all experts of their respective fields," he told AFP by phone.

"They are the best surgeons, the best physicians, the best anaesthetists, and so on."

While the prognosis for the recipient of the pig's heart is far from certain, the surgery represents a major milestone for animal-to-human transplants.

About 110,000 Americans are currently waiting for an organ transplant, and more than 6,000 patients die each year before getting one, according to official figures.

To meet demand, doctors have long been interested in so-called xenotransplantation, or cross-species organ donation.

"We were working on this model for 18 years," Mohiuddin said.

"Those 18 years were dotted with different phases of frustration -- as well as breakthroughs -- but finally we have done it."

The surgery is not without controversy, however, especially given Mohiuddin's Islamic faith.

Pigs are considered unclean by Muslims and Jews -- and even some Christians who follow the Bible's Old Testament literally.

"In my view, this is not permissible for a Muslim," said Javed Ahmed Ghamdi, a prominent Islamic scholar, in a video blog where he discussed the procedure.

But another Islamic scholar in Pakistan gave the procedure a clean bill of health.

"There is no prohibition in sharia," Allama Hasan Zafar Naqvi told AFP, calling it a "medical miracle".

"In religion, no deed is as supreme as saving a human life," added Mohiuddin.

In Karachi, the surgeon's fellow alumni feel their former colleague may now be destined for even greater glory -- medicine's top prize.

"I think... the whole team is in for it, in for the Nobel Prize," said vice-chancellor Qureshi.

F.Prochazka--TPP