Dhaka – Quoting from a World Health Organisation (WHO) report, experts at a roundtable yesterday said more people are dying of obesity related diseases caused by overweight or over eating than those who are malnourished.
One third of people in the world are suffering from overweight meaning that around 67 crore people are obese, which is the source of many deadly diseases, they said.In Bangladesh, the experts claimed, one fourth of people are suffering from obesity.
The experts said treatment of kidney patients in Bangladesh is very expensive and demanded of the government to reduce the price of medicine and exempt taxes on importing machineries required for treatment of kidneys.
Kidney Awareness Monitoring and Prevention Society (KAMPS), a voluntary organization, arranged the roundtable on “Kidney Disease and Obesity: Healthy Lifestyle for Healthy Kidney”, at Jatiya Press Club to mark the World Kidney Day.
“Obesity is one of the 10 death risks… It is directly linked with kidney disease, overweight directly cause harm of Nephron of kidney and indirectly cause harm of kidney by high blood pressure, diabetes and heart diseases,” said Prof. Dr. MA Samad, head of department of kidney, Labaid Specialised Hospital.
He said once upon a time the communicable disease was the main reason for death worldwide, but now in Bangladesh more than 65 percent deaths caused by non-communicable disease and obesity originates lot many deadly diseases.
In his keynote paper, Prof. Samad, who is also chairman of the KAMPS, said about two crore of people are suffering from any kidney related diseases.
“The treatment cost of this disease is so high that at least 10 percent of patients cannot afford it, as a result most of the country’s kidney patients die without treatment, whereas only the awareness can prevent nearly 50 to 60 percent of kidney failure. For this is needed is to be habituated with sound lifestyle from early of childhood,” he said.
He said risk of 68 percent kidney related diseases could be prevented only by changing lifestyle, the habits include regular walking, consuming sufficient fruits and vegetables, keeping weight under control and avoiding smoking.
Prof. Harun or Rashid, chairman of Kidney Foundation, said against the huge number of kidney patients in the country there have only 96 dialysis centers where 18,000 patients undergo dialysis twice a week, in private dialysis center it costs very high from Tk. 3500 to 4000.
“In South Asia only 15 percent kidney patients get opportunity for dialysis others suffer affliction as they fail to go for dialysis due to poverty”, he said.
Rezwana Hasan, executive director of BELA, Col (Retd) Mir Motahar Hossain, chief adviser of ATN Bangla, Prof. Dr. Mohibur Rahman, secretary general of Bangladesh Renal Association, Prof. Dr. Abdul Halim, Shaheen Reza Noor and crickter Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu, among others, also spoke on the occasion. – Staff Reporter
