COLOMBO, Dec 7 (NIA) – Sri Lanka is to host an interntional conferene on Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) in Colombo this month as deaths related to CKD has now reached an ‘alarming level’.
Officials from the Health Ministry said that steps were being taken by the government and the private sector to find cures and address problems related to CKD which has seen a rapid increase especially in the rural areas of the island nation.
One of the biggest problems leading to CKD in Sri Lanka is the lack of pure drinking water in many areas.
Sri Lanka estimates that as many as 400,000 people in the North Central Province alone may be affected by CKD, with five or six out of 100 people affected.
Officials said that Sri Lanka’s Gardiner Foundation, led by Sanjiv Gardiner, which had tied up with the Brussels based International Society of Nephrology (ISN), will inaugurate the ‘ISN-Gardiner Foundation in Colombo’ this month, which will be attended by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe along with the participation of world recognized Nephrologists.
The aim of the Foundation would be to provide pure drinking water and medical assistance in the poorer areas of Sri Lanka, where an alarming number of people, including children were being diagnosed with Chronic Kidney failure.
“Chronic Kidney Disease has been spreading in various parts of Sri Lanka at an unprecedented rate over the past two decades,” an official from Sri Lanka’s Gardiner Foundation said.
“This is a relatively new phenomenon that Sri Lanka’s government and its citizens have had to face.”
According to medical experts, 300 to 600 CKD related deaths occur in Sri Lankan hospitals annually.
Some doctors put the number of deaths due to CKD at 5,000 per annum, as many deaths due to CKD are not recorded as they occur at home in remote rural areas.
One of the main reasons for the rapid spread of the disease is inadequate medical facilities, especially in detected areas and the sociological factors that have affected the communities involved.
“This has become a major concern for the Sri Lankan government and its medical fraternity,” the Gardiner Foundation official said.
Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena, earlier this year stressed that his government would take every possible measure to eradicate chronic kidney disease which had become a challenge in the country.
He said his government had identified some of the causes of the disease and would take every possible measure towards the goal to eradicate the debilitating disease, mainly among the agricultural workers.
