‘Are Your
Kidneys OK? Detect Early, Protect Kidney Health’
Every
year, the second Thursday of March is observed as World Kidney Day (WKD). This
year, it falls on the 13th of March (Thursday) and the theme for this
year is “Are Your Kidneys OK? Detect Early, Protect Kidney Health”. World
Kidney Day observation raises awareness about kidney health, prevention and
equitable access to care.
It
is observed that Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) has increased significantly in
India in the past five years. Though there is no recorded data available of our
state Nagaland about the actual burden of kidney disease, the number of kidney
failure patients registered and undergoing regular maintenance -- hemodialysis --
at various Dialysis Centres, both government and private, is increasing day by
day. The Indian Society of Nephrology has rightly suggested that chronic kidney
disease should be included as one of the epidemics in India.
Some
of the common causes of chronic kidney disease leading to kidney failure are diabetes,
chronic hypertension, a genetic factor or a rare disease. India leads in obesity,
hypertension and diabetes.Painkillers
medicines which are easily available as over the counter drugs are often abused
and misused which can cause significant damage to the kidneys, and this adds on
to the burden of kidney disease. There is a need to strictly regulate the sale
of these medicines. It is notedthat
people in stage 1 and stage 2 kidney disease rapidly deteriorated down to stage
5 in a couple of months due to ingestion of heavy metals often contained in the
some of the alternative medicines.
eGFR
is a test used to assess how well the kidneys are working. Depending on the
value of calculated eGFR, kidney disease is graded from stage-1 to stage-5. An
eGFR lower than 15 is considered as End Stage Kidney Disease (Kidney Failure).
By the Stage-5 CKD a patient requires Renal Replacement Therapy (RRT) which can
be Peritoneal Dialysis (this can be done at home by a trained care giver) or
Haemodialysis through Dialysis Machines which are done at the hospital.
Peritoneal Dialysis or Haemodialysis serves as a bridge before the kidney
transplantation which is the definite treatment for the kidney failure. With a
suitable donor kidney transplantation far more improves the quality of life
than continuing on haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis.
In
the early stage of the kidney disease, patients don’t present with any
symptoms, so it goes un-noticed that a person is suffering from kidney disease.
In most cases the starting complains are tiredness, fatigue, loss of appetite,
swelling of feet and facial puffiness. On checking the blood pressure (B.P)
most of these patients will have very high B.P.These clinical findings are correlated with kidney function blood test
report showing increased blood urea and serum creatinine which are the waste
products excreted from the body by the kidney. So as this year’s theme suggests,
one must be conscious of our kidneys health and go for routine screening test
for early detection.
Many
patients of kidney failure refused to go for haemodialysis due to the financial
burden to the family as it is expensive to continue dialysis sessions after
sessions. For adequate dialysis most of the patients requires thrice in a week
dialysis and cannot afford.
Under
the Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme (PMNDP), which was rolled out on
7th April 2016 as part of the National Health Mission (NHM) for the
provision of free dialysis services to the poor, it has made a major impact in
health care service delivery for kidney failure patients. Launched in all 36
states and UT across 748 districts with 1594 Dialysis Centresmade functional, 11011 Haemodialysis Machines
were installed, 26.91 lakhpatients
availed dialysis services and 323.67 lakh hemodialysis sessions held.
Under
this PMNDP, Dialysis Centre at District Hospital Phek is the 5th District
in Nagaland to be inaugurated and made operational on this day the 13th
March 2025 coinciding with the observation of World Kidney Day.
