Experts at a seminar yesterday termed chronic kidney disease as a major public health concern in the country as its 90 percent people are unable to bear treatment cost.
About two crore people are somehow suffering from the disease, while 40,000 die of longtime kidney failure a year in the country, they told a seminar in the city.
They said there is only one nephrologist for 25 lakh people in the country, but the ratio should be one for 50,000 people.
The rate of the chronic kidney disease now reached at 18 percent in the last 10 years by raising 50 percent, the experts said.
If the present rate of the disease continues it will be stood at 28 to 30 percent in the next 10 years which is very alarming, they said.
Bangladesh Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) arranged the seminar on ‘Chronic kidney diseases: Bangladesh perspective’ at the Assembly Hall of BCSIR.
Vice-Chancellor of Daffodil International University Prof Dr Aminul Islam attended the seminar as the chief guest while Vice-Chancellor of Jahangirnagar University Prof Dr Shariff Enamul Kabir was present as the special guest.
With BAAS President Dr SM Imamul Haque in the chair, the function was addressed by Chairman of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission Dr Mosharraf Hossain and BAAS General Secretary Harun-Or-Rashid.
Eminent kidney specialist Prof Harun-Ur-Rashid presented the keynote paper at the seminar also attended by 400 lecturers and scientists from different institutions.
The experts said people have been suffering from kidney disease for various reasons including diabetes, high blood pressure and genetic reasons.
Fifty-one percent people are not aware of diabetes, 65 percent are not aware of high blood pressure, while 65 percent do not know that whether any albumin is passing with their urine, they said.
In his keynote paper, Prof Harun said the rate of chronic kidney disease is increasing alarmingly across the world, including Bangladesh, and it is being considered as one of the major health concerns.
“The big problem in the chronic kidney disease is that it has no symptom and people with the disease do not visit doctors. When the symptom is appeared, their kidney went out of order,” he said.
At that time, Prof Harun said, regular dialysis or transplantation is needed to keep the kidney functional. “But, 90 percent people cannot afford the treatment cost as the dialysis or transplantation is very expensive. As a result, they slowly move towards death,” he said.
Against the backdrop of increasing number of chronic kidney patients, he suggested regular checking up diabetes, blood pressure and albumin by the people above 40.
Prof Harun also suggested walking for at least 30 minutes every day, avoiding salt and smoking as well as controlling fat.
Courtesy of BSS via The Daily Star
