THE number of kidney patients and deaths from the disease is alarmingly high in the country and available treatment facilities is not enough, besides being highly expensive to families who are dealing with the problem. Quoting health specialists a report in The New Nation on Thursday said more than 20 million people are now suffering from renal failure with the annual death rate being at over 40 thousand in recent years. Scientists at a health workshop in the city last week warned the prevalence of the disease may double in the next 25 years and the number one remedy to the disease would lie in creating widespread awareness among the people and then to take steps to eradicate the root cause of the problem. Kidney Awareness, Monitoring and Prevention Society, Bangladesh held the event to discuss the clinical aspects of the disease and the problems related to its treatment.
The urgency of the awareness about the symptoms of the disease is that scientists hold the view that around 60 percent of the kidney failure can be prevented if it is detected at a preliminary stage. Prevention is always a better option than curative treatment. It is all the more so in case of renal ailments as its treatment is highly expensive and even five percent of the patients cannot afford to pay for it. Moreover, acute scarcity of specialist doctors and trained technicians remains the number one impediment to reach the treatment to common people. Available data showed there are only 100 nephrologists, 20 kidney transplant surgeons and 200 dialysis nurses in the city and patients have to come to them in the capital for treatment.
Keeping the renal failure patients alive requires expensive dialysis or kidney transplantation. The transplantation facility is very limited in our country causing deaths to over 90 percent patients without treatment although these premature deaths can be prevented through providing appropriate treatment. Scientists hold the regular intake of contaminated and poisonous food responsible as the root cause of kidney disease. There is hardly any consumable food such as meat, fish, fruits and vegetables and cooked food in restaurants which does not contain toxic substances and they slowly damage the functional kidney over the years.
As we see, there is hardly any country where the entire population is exposed to such health risks as here in Bangladesh. So, we hold the view that the government must not only increase the low cost treatment facility by increasing the availability of physicians, trained nurses and hospital arrangement but it must also run vigorous anti-adulteration drives at markets and restaurants to stop the use of infected food. There is no room for halfhearted approaches to this sensitive issue which may cause deaths to so many people over time. Moreover mass awareness campaigns must reach the common people throughout the year. We suggest that the NGO and corporate bodies should come forward to play their socially responsible role to motivate people to take healthy food. Moreover, the government should also provide logistic, moral and material support to all hospitals including rural health complexes to ensure the proper treatment to this disease.
