CEBU CITY. THE country’s program on the prevention of the spread of renal disease gets a new infusion: a new batch of 30 campaign advocates committed to bring down the alarm by getting information to communities.
Renal disease, now the tenth in the list of the country’s fatal diseases kills about 7,000 Filipinos annually, statistics from the Philippine Renal Disease Registry of the Department of Health.
A team from the country’s Renal Disease Control and Prevention Program (REDCOP) of the National Kidney Transplant Institute sat down to train trainers for renal disease prevention during a three day activity at the Cebu Grand Hotel January 28-30.
The graduates from the REDCOP Trainor’s Training for the Visayan regions are the new campaign advocates. They come from the Department of Health, Education, Philippine Information Agency provincial offices, the academe and well advocacy meaning groups.
Stepping up on the fight, the country’s program manager on renal disease control stressed that the best move against it is information and getting the right diagnosis at its early stage.
Renal or kidney diseases include kidney diabetic kidney disease, chronic glumerulonephritis, hypertensive kidney disease and chronic and repeated kidney infection or pyelonephritis. When not treated, these could lead to end stage renal disease which is fatal, according to a REDCOP brochure.
Dr. Remedios de Belen-Uriarte said if left unattended, the disease may degenerate into an irreversible end stage renal disease that does not come cheap.
Dr. Uriarte is the program manager for the country’s REDCOP based at the NKTI where the country’s kidney transplants are performed.
A kidney transplant, the only remedy to prolong the life of a patient now ranges between P500T to a million, and another remedy is hemodialysis which comes out thrice a week and costs P3,500 to P6T per session.
She added that maintenance drugs may also be a big drain in the pocket as a patient may need at least P20 a month.
In poverty plagued areas, renal specialists have shifted the campaign to the preventive side of the disease control while called for a healthy diet and early detection by regular check-ups with doctors and urine analysis.
It is in this aspect that the campaign needs to get down to the grassroots, Dr. Uriarte said. (rachiu/PIA)