Reason for province - specific kidney disease soon
Nadira GUNATILLEKE
The Health Ministry will declare the real cause of kidney disease
prevalent in specific provinces by June this year.
A report has been formulated and the team of specialists expect to
receive it from a medical institution in Belgium within the next two
months, a Health Ministry spokesman said.
According to the spokesman, the real reason for kidney diseases as
discovered in the North Western, North Central, Uva and Sabaragamuwa
Provinces will be announced and precautionary measures taken to
safeguard the people living in those provinces.
The rapid increase in kidney disease in those specific provinces was
recorded about 25 years ago. Local experts, professionals and academics
conducted researches, studies and surveys on the situation but failed to
find out the real reason for the rapid increase in kidney diseases in
these provinces. People in other parts of the area are affected by
kidney diseases due to diabetes and high blood pressure.
In Sri Lanka, 200 of every one million people suffer from kidney
diseases. The government spends over Rs 3,500 million annually to treat
kidney patients and the cost of drugs exceeds Rs 7,000 million every
year. A kidney patient has to spend around Rs. 10,000 for dialysis and a
kidney transplant costs around Rs. 800,000, the spokesman said. |