Materia Medica Malaysiana

More Kidney Disease Awareness Campaigns In The Offing

The Health Ministry will organise more kidney disease awareness campaigns to impress on the people the importance of preventive measures to keep such diseases at bay.
Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said Thursday such campaigns and activities, which were also aimed at doctors and health workers, were necessary in view of the rising number of kidney patients.
"I understand that these activities have been successfully carried out in Singapore and hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans have undergone screening for kidney disease," he said at the launch of the national-level kidney disease awareness campaign here. His speech was delivered by the ministry's parliamentary secretary, Lee Kah Choon.
Chua said that in the United States, awareness campaigns had revealed that 20 million Americans suffered from chronic kidney disease.
The information gleaned from awareness campaigns would enable the ministry to take more effective measures to overcome end stage renal failure which in turn could also reduce cardiovascular disease among patients, he said.
He said that in view that most of the cases were diabetics, the ministry had drawn up measures for early detection like conducting urine and blood tests and for controlling the blood pressure and sugar level of diabetic patients,
The patients could also play their part by taking medication and living a healthy lifestyle, he added.
Meanwhile, Lee told a news conference that the ministry was asking certain non-governmental organisations which run kidney dialysis centres to adhere to the ministry's standard to ensure good and proper treatment of patients.
He said some of the dialysis centres run by NGOs or individuals did not have properly-trained staff like nephrologists.
These centres might be facing financial constraints or were simply ignorant of the need to have properly trained nephrologists, he said.