Kerala - Kochi   

World Kidney Day to be observed tomorrow

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: Awareness need to be created to save people dying from kidney ailments, said U.S.-based nephrologist Ajay K. Singh. Dr. Singh is the Clinical Director and Physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Ninety per cent of people with kidney-related complication die when left untreated, Dr. Singh said. He was here on Tuesday as part of the Screening and Early Evaluation of Kidney Disease (SEEK) Project launched by Brigham Hospital. The project aims to screen and identify people with kidney ailments and make them aware of the available treatment.

"The number of people with kidney ailments is increasing because of the increase in the number of diabetic patients. One in every three diabetic patient develops kidney-related complications, " said Dr. Singh.

An awareness campaign is being launched as the World Kidney Day on March 9 for the first time, Dr. Singh said.

Kidney ailments are not widely recognised as a public health problem in the country, said nephrologist Georgy K. Ninan, who will be collecting data in Kochi for SEEK. Dr. Singh, the principal investigator of the project, spoke on SEEK here at a function.

Dr. Singh earlier took part in a medical camp held at Panangad at which 100 people were screened. The president and members of the panchayat were also present. Screening camps will be held at other panchayats and municipalities. A total of 500 people will be screened, said Dr. Ninan.

On an average at least two new patients are admitted a month for dialysis in most of the major centres, said Dr. Nainan and it is recommended that the patients undergo dialysis thrice a week. Dr. Nainan, who was recently awarded the fellowship in Indian Society of Nephrology, was felicitated at the function in which Varghese Mathew, president of Kochi unit of Indian Medical Association, and Madhu Blessy, director - operations, Cochin Kidney Foundation, participated.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Crime in suburbs not a trend, says official
World Kidney Day to be observed tomorrow
Woman, son found dead
Next issue
Ombudsman sitting
In Kochi Today

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu