Foundation seeks awareness, funds for kidney disease treatment

The Kidney Foundation for Africa has intensified call for more awareness and funds to help cater for people living with kidney disease as the world marked World Kidney Day (WKD) yesterday.

Dean, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, Lagos State University College of Medicine, Prof. Jacob Awobusuyi, who spoke as a Guest Speaker at the event to mark the day, said the WKD campaign aims at raising awareness, importance of kidney to the body and reduction of its associated problem worldwide.

Awobusuyi, who stressed the need to educate all medical professionals about their key functions in detecting and reducing the risk of kidney disease, charged the local and national health authorities on their roles in controlling the epidemic.

He urged screening of all patients with diabetes and hypertension to detect kidney disease and also advised the public on preventive behaviours.

“Keep yourself fit and active. Do exercises to control your blood sugar level, monitor your blood pressure, eat healthy foods, maintain normal weight, take a lot of fluids, do not smoke and avoid intake of over-the-counter pain pills on regular basis as these non-steroids anti-inflammatory drugs may lead to kidney damage.

“Check your kidney functions regularly,” he said.

Also, a Senior Consultant Department of Nephrology and Renal Transplantation, Apollo Hospitals, Gandhinagar, India, Dr. Manoj Gumber, urged everybody to join hands in the fight against the disease, as it knows no race, colour or age.

Gumber said kidney transplantation offers best quality of life, freedom from dialysis and its complications with better patient survival and cost-effective.