DUSHANBE, November 9, 2009, Asia-Plus -- Tajik medical workers are the first in the Central Asian region to perform the kidney transplantation operation, according to press service of the Ministry of Health (MoH)

The 22-year-old resident of Khatlon’s Vakhsh district Habibullo Qaraliyev underwent a transplantation operation on November 5, receiving a kidney from his 18-year-old sister Kholbibi Qaraliyeva.

The transplantation operation was performed by 15 Tajik surgeons at the Republican Urology Center within the National Medical Center (formerly Republican Clinic Hospital # 3) in Dushanbe.

The urology center is provided with all necessary state-of-the-art medical equipment for performing such operations due to funds provided from the national budget.  Two similar operations are expected to be performed within the next few days and the kidneys will also come from living donors – the patients’ relatives, the press service said.