Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)

Kidneys are responsible for filtering waste products from the blood. When the kidney function is impaired, the waste starts accumulating, leading finally to a rise in bad cholesterol levels. This means the CKD patients have more risk of dying from a heart attack. It is important that the kidney patients need to control their blood pressure, LDL bad cholesterol and diabetic status. Epidemiological studies showed that the CKD increased the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, even amongst early kidney ailments. It is known for long that the number of kidney patients suffering a heart attack is more as compared to patients without any kidney problems.

In India, over 7.5 lakh people suffer from CKD. The treatments for kidney damage available are dialysis or kidney transplantation. Dialysis is a very expensive procedure. It is method of removing toxic substances from the blood using a machine when the kidneys are unable to do so due to failure of their function. Depending upon the extent of the damage, each dialysis session may last for 6-8 hours, 5-7 times a week. At present, 1.5 lakh new patients suffer from the end-stage renal failure annually. Of this, only 3500 get kidney transplants and 6000 undergo dialysis. Depending on the condition, one has to spend about 3 to 4 thousand rupees for each dialysis session in private clinics. Kidney transplantation is also an expensive proposition which can be afforded by the rich only.

It is reported that there is an acute shortage of dialysis centers and nephrologists (kidney specialists) in India for management of kidney diseases. Kidney donors are hard to come by. Cadaver donations are very rare. Cadaver donations should be legally supported to make it mandatory for the hospitals to convince the relatives of the patients for donation of the organs from brain-dead patients. Media can play a major role in public awareness by sensitizing the issue and facilitate organ donations. The Health Ministry should seriously look into the medico-legal aspects of the stem cell research for producing new cell lines for the treatment of such diseases. Stem cell banking should be made easily affordable as part of long-term program.