World Kidney Day was marked in Sarajevo today in front of the Cathedral. Information was shared on chronic kidney disease and the signing of donor cards.
President of the Association of Physicians of Nephrology and Kidney Transplantation in B&H (UNDT B&H) prof.dr. Halima Resić said that this campaign wishes to draw attention to relevant institution on chronic kidney disease as a global health problem.
‘’Our aim is to raise awareness of our citizens as to what is chronic kidney disease, which in 90 percent of cases is not revealed and what are the risk factors for chronic kidney disease’’, said Resić to the media.
According to statistics, every tenth person in the world has some stage of chronic kidney disease, and is therefore classified as renal disease in today’s ‘silent killers’, such as heart disease, diabetes and hypertension.
In many cases, it will lead to end stage disease-the stage of renal disease for which dialysis is generally the only available therapy, and which dramatically increases the costs of the health system.
The effect of dialysis on a person’s quality of life and its economic potential should not be underestimated and because of this the prevention of chronic kidney disease is primary.
In 27 dialysis centers in B&H, there are around 2.600 people on dialysis. In Canton Sarajevo, there are 310 patients.
As always, this year UNDTBiH is doing the signing of donor cards and the promotion of donor cards, and as Resić stressed, ‘’we always spread the idea that donating organs after brain death, but there is a problem because transplantation centers are still not established’’.
‘’The main problem as to why there are no cadaveric transplants is because there is no transplantation center’’, said Resić. She added that work is being done for this, and that soon the FB&H will have a transplantation center established.
However, she said that a lot of work needs to be done on the provision of information to citizens, and ‘’the point is that when there is brain death, the family refuses to donate organs because it is still a taboo theme’’.
‘’We are working for ten years on our activities and continue to inform citizens who are interested, and this is shown by the 10.000 signed donor cards, through the free will of citizens. After every one of these actions, there are more and more members. When someone struggles to extend life, then the effort is worth it’’, said prof.dr. Halima Resić.
The campaign is organized by the Association of Physicians for Nephrology, Dialysis and Transplantation of Kidneys (UNDT) B&H in cooperation with the Association of Chronic Kidney Diseases of Canton Sarajevo, Association of Dialysis and Transplantation of Patients SBK and the Donor Network Canton Sarajevo.
(Source: klix.ba)
