Friday 9 March 2012

Today Is World Kidney Day: Experts urge Nigerians to donate kidneys

thetribune


As Nigeria joined the rest of the world to mark this year’s World Kidney Day, on Thursday, experts in the treatment of kidney diseases have appealed to Nigerians not to hesitate in offering to donate one of their two kidneys for patients who need them, saying a human being does not need more than one kidney to live.

Bello Tomori, a Consultant Nephrologist and Yemi Raji, Senior Registrar, Nephrology, both of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), made this appeal at a sensitisation programme organised by LUTH to mark the day in Lagos State.

According to Dr Raji, there were huge numbers of Nigerians who were down with kidney failure and, therefore, required kidney replacement, and the only way they could survive was to have somebody close to them donate one of their kidneys.

“The message for this year’s event is about kidney donation. Many people have End Stage Renal Disease(ESRD) or what we call kidney failure and the permanent solution is kidney replacement”, he added.

He, however, called on the Federal Government to come to the aid of people who were down with kidney failure, like it is done in advanced countries of the world and some African countries, adding that the cost of managing the disease was too much for an individual to bear.

“Even in war-torn countries like Sudan, the cost of treating kidney failure is subsidised while in Europe and America, the government bears the total cost of treatment”, he disclosed.

He listed some of the commonest causes of kidney failure in Nigeria to include hypertension, diabetes, malaria, abuse of analgesics and infections such as HIV and hepatitis B and C.


Can you donate one of your kidney to a patient that needs it to stay alive? Post your comment bellow or on the facebook comment post.

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