Renal Disease

There are good reasons why you should know the basics about renal disease. (There are different types of kidney diseases. This section will deal with ESRD or End Stage Renal Disease.)

• Kidney damage goes unnoticed in the early stages, as there are no alarming symptoms. Early stages of kidney disease are manageable. Unfortunately, in most cases, the problem comes to light only when the kidney functions have dropped to such a level that the patient requires drastic measures like dialysis or transplantation.

• There are no reliable statistics about kidney patients in India. In the West it is estimated that for every 10 lakh people there are 100 patients developing advanced kidney disease each year. Even applying the same statistics to India, we have at least 100,000 people developing End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) each year. This is not a small number.

• Public health services in India do not provide for free or subsidised dialysis or transplantation facilities. Apart from being painful, ESRD treatment is also very expensive.

• Preventive care is possible and early kidney damage is manageable. Alertness and care on your part may help you prevent kidney disease.

Source

Information on some aspects of Renal Disease, especially on Dialysis, has been sourced from Baxter India Pvt Ltd. For more information on Baxter click here.