Country’s 90 to 95 per cent kidney patients can not afford treatment of kidney diseases due to lack of financial support, says a kidney expert.
“A kidney failure patient has to pay at least Tk 10,000 per week for dialysis, said Prof. Dr. M.A. Samad, chief consultant of kidney department, Lab Aid Specialised Hospital, in his keynote paper presented at a function in Tangail on Saturday.
He said there are only five centres for kidney transplantation and six medical college hospitals to provide medical service to kidney patients.Dr. M.A. Samad, who is also chairman of Kidney Awareness Monitoring and Prevention Society (KAMPS), a voluntary healthcare organisation, regretted that there is no structured kidney screening programme in the country so raising awareness among people to prevent the disease is the only option.
He said about 20 million of people are suffering from some form of kidney diseases, of them 14 – 18 percent suffer from chronic kidney disease (CKD) in rural & urban area while 35 – 40 thousand people die of ESRD (End Stage of Renal Disease) every year and 20 – 25 thousand people suffer from acute kidney failure every year.
Mentioning acute shortage of kidney treatment facility, he mentioned that we have only 100 Nephrologists and 140 Urologists, only one specialised kidney institute at government level (NIKDU), only 20 dialysis center in greater Dhaka city.
The KAMPS arranged the Free Medical Camp on the occasion of the International Mother Language Day as part of its regular annual event for the 11th consecutive year, says a press release.
More than 3500 poor patients have been given treatment and distributed with required medicine completely free of cost at the Free Medical and Eye Camp at Hatibandha, Shakhipur in Tangail on Saturday.
Nearly 40 expert physicians and technologists, led by Prof. M.A. Samad treated the helpless and poor patients of Tangail area for the day long.
Patients received treatment in various disciplines including Kidney, Heart, Liver, Obs & Gynae, Gastro, Diabetes, ENT, Medicine, Pediatric, Chest, Dental, Mental health, paralysis and skin diseases, while more than 100 aged poor eye patients undergone cataract surgery in the camp.
Side by side treatment the necessary lab tests of the patients like Blood Test, Urine, Cretenine, Blood Sugar, USG, ECG were done and also necessary medicines were distributed among them free of costs.
As part of the day long camp, a discussion meeting styled” Sound Kidneys for All: Awareness is a Must” was held and also the cover of the regular annual publication of KAMPS on the occasion of Free Medical Camp and Health Education Fair named “Prayash-11” was formally unfolded.
Former skipper of the national cricket team, Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu inaugurated the health education fair and free medical camp while Civil Surgeon of Tangail Dr. Syed Ibne Sayed, renowned Nephrologist and Director of NIKDU Prof. Dr. Rafiqul Abedin and Executive Director of the ‘Bureau Bangladesh’, Md. Jakir Hossain were present as special guests.
Adviser of the free medical camp and former General Manager of Bangladesh Bank, Md. Abdul Malek Mian presided over the meeting while Chairman of KAMPS also Chief Consultant Kidney Department of Lab Aid Specialised Hospital, Prof. Dr. MA Samad presented key note paper on the discussion meeting.
Referring to a study Prof Samad said in USA about 48 billion Dollar was spent for treatment which is more than double of yearly budget of Bangladesh, while in UK the cost of treating only the kidney patients is much more than that of treatment cost of all together the cancer of liver, lung and skin, which easily mean how fatal or frightful the kidney disease is.
Prof. Samad said KAMPS has been formed with the objective to serve the poor patients specially raisning awareness among people in preventing Kidney disease and the organisation has so far treated more than 50,000 of patients and completed more that 1000 cataract surgeries totally free of cost.
The Doctors took part in the free medical camp include Prof. Dr. Rafiqul Abedin, Dr. Indrajit Prasad, Dr. Hafizur Rahman, Prof. Dr. Shahnaj Begum, Prof. Dr. Qazi Shahnoor Alam, Prof. Dr. Jakir Hossain Sarker, Dr. Md. Ashraful Alam, Dr. Tapashi Rahman, Dr. Mehjabin Rashid, Dr. Atahar Hossain, Dr. Ayesha Siddiqua, Dr. Syed Tanvir Ahmed, Dr. Selim Al-Azad, Dr. Md. Shohel Rana.
Managing Director of KAMPS, Nasrin Begum delivered vote of thanks to the guests. – Staff Reporter
