Times of India
12 July 2010
Lucknow, India

The state health department has taken up plans to upgrade facilities for kidney disease treatment and provide infrastructure to curb other renal diseases. According to reports, both Ram Manohar Lohia and Balrampur hospitals are expected to be getting four ultra–modern dialysis units each. Besides this, government hospital in Kanpur and NCR are also expected to get one dialysis unit each.

Till now, dialysis facilities in government sector were available in Balrampur hospital only. Besides this, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University’s (CSMMU) medicine department has a dialysis unit while Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences has an elaborate nephrology unit.

“This is going to aid patients belonging to the poor socio economic backgrounds,” said Dr SNS Yadav, in–charge, Balrampur hospital. This becomes crucial owing to the fact that an increase in the number of patients suffering from chronic kidney diseases and kidney failure has been observed.

The city has witnessed a four fold increase in the number of people suffering with common renal ailments in the last one decade. A similar rise has been witnessed in the number of people suffering with end stage renal diseases. Around 40 per cent of the advance renal failure cases reported at Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) are diabetics while another 30 per cent are renal disease patients as a fall–out of high blood pressure.

Experts point out that impending diseases are all set to increase the burden of kidney disease patients. With India sitting on the diabetes edifice, kidney diseases are expected to increase in leaps and bounds. Doctors in city’s government hospitals estimates three–fold increase in the number of persons suffering with hypertension in the last one decade. Shockingly, 90 per cent of the people come to know about their condition incidentally. Doctors at CSMMU and SGPGI say that picture is equally gloomy for diabetes too. Around 300 patients are reported in a single day, of which 40 per cent are new cases.

To make matter worse, patients are unaware of the threat and the country is unprepared to meet the upcoming challenge. People are not aware of the primary symptoms and contact doctors only when situation slips out of their hands.

“The gravity of the situation could be estimated from the fact that of all the patients in need of dialysis, only 22.5 per cent receive the treatment,” stated Dr SRS Yadav, consultant nephrologist with Balrampur hospital. WHO estimates show that over 2 lakh persons in India develop terminal kidney failure annually. If care is not taken, the incidence would go upto 25 million people by 2030.