Kidney failure ravages Yobe, Jigawa communities
too expensive. That is why some people have now resorted to prayers and traditional medicine,” he said.
On the causes of the disease, the Chief Imam said, religiously, there was no tentative cause unless scientifically proven.
“We call on government and philanthropists to come to our rescue because thousands of people are dying from this epidemic. Not only in Gashua, Jakusko and other parts of Yobe, but in Hadejia and Kafin Hausa in Jigawa State,” he said.
When contacted, the Permanent Secretary, Yobe State Ministry of Health, Hamidu Alhaji, said a stakeholders technical meeting that involved academics, health professionals and government officials was held last year.
“Government supported us to host the consultative meeting with the experts and came up with a proposal. All the key processes to develop the proposal were supported by government,” he said.
He explained that the proposal is an institutional research of about N400 million and is currently under government’s consideration.
“Before then, government came up with the issue of free dialysis for indigenes to take over the burden of treatment cost, which in most cases patients cannot afford’’, he said.
He said at the meeting, risk factors and possible areas to research on the prevalence and causality were discussed extensively.
“We wrote to PCNI, before they rounded off to support the research. We also presented the high prevalence of the kidney disease at the 59th National Council Meeting on Health, appealing for more push on federal government to release funds for the research,” he added.
Chairman of Hadejia Ina Mafita Association, a Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Alhaji Hussaini Shehu, said the prevalence of kidney failure in Hadejia axis is far more than that of Gashua emirate.
He said, according to findings and statistical record by the Kidney Center of the Bayero University, Kano, in collaboration with the National Institute of Health, USA, and Nigerian Institute for Medical research (NIFMR) in 2018, Hadejia zone recorded the highest prevalence of kidney disease at 35 per cent, Zone C of Yobe, 25 per cent and Borno, 20 per cent.
He said three different researches were conducted, simultaneously, to know the actual cause of the disease, but none of it gave convincing clue to the cause of the epidemic.
“The first and second researches were carried out by the National Research Institute for Chemical Technology (NARICT), Zaria. However, according to the research, the suspected chemicals found in the sampled water, blood, urine and food analyses were insignificant to cause high prevalence of the disease unless they accumulated in people’s body over time.
“The first research was sponsored by a politician, Ubali Shittu, who is now a senator. The second one was financed by the state government. For over three months now, the state governor has been putting pressure on us to invite the researchers for a town hall meeting to present their findings with a way forward,” he said.
He said the governor has promised to do everything possible to end the epidemic.
“The governor, state and federal ministries of health, traditional rulers, religious leaders, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), our legislatures and eminent sons and daughters of Hadejia emirate would all attend the town hall meeting,’’ he added.
The chairman said that many people are attributing the prevalence of the disease to too much intake of local herbs as well as excessive use of chemicals like herbicides, insecticides and other chemicals in farms.
When contacted, the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) said it was aware of the high prevalence of the disease in parts of Yobe State.
“We were aware of the prevalence of kidney disease in some parts of Yobe State long before Dr. Sulaiman Mohammed Maina, conducted his research there,” Dr. Ibrahim Ummate, the Director of the Kidney Centre of the hospital, told Daily Trust on phone.
“I conducted a similar research way back in 2006 there, although it was confined to only Gashua and Nguru local government areas, but my research confirmed the prevalence there.
“I submitted the findings of my research to the Yobe State government then, which also submitted it to the University Teaching Hospital, but since then, I have not seen or heard anything about it.
“The government, at whatever level, philanthropists or any concerned stakeholder in the healthcare should establish a support or research fund on the prevalence of the disease in Yobe State.
“The research should be conducted on the food and water residents of the affected areas take, whether the food and water contain elements causing the disease and whether there are other related causes,” he said.
The Head, Nephrology Unit, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Professor Aliyu Abdu, said they are aware of the preponderance of renal diseases around Hadejia axis of Jigawa State.
He added that research is ongoing to ascertain why the cases are common in that area.
“We are aware of the issue but the National Institute of Medical Research in collaboration with the National Institute of Health Research, United States of America, is currently undertaking a research to find out why the issue is common in the zone,” he said.
He said that through community effort, a dialysis centre has been built in Hadejia, to cater to the needs of patients who cannot afford care at the hospitals.
He said volunteer doctors from AKTH and other hospitals go to the dialysis centre every week to see patients suffering from kidney failure free of charge.
Also speaking on the issue, the Director General/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Institute of Medical Research, Yaba in Lagos, Professor Babatunde Salako, said the institute was currently carrying out a study on high prevalence of the disease in Hadejia, Jigawa State.
This, he said followed a report by Professor Aliyu Abdu, who manages many patients in Kano State and noticed that a large number of those going through dialysis are from the area.
“Professor Aliyu belongs to a Consortium of ours called, The H3 Africa Kidney Disease Network. H3 means Human, Heredity and Health in Africa, this time, on kidney disease. The aim of the H3 Consortium is to follow-up on a previous finding that showed that a particular gene called ‘APOL 1 Risk ALLEL’ predisposes black people to kidney disease.
“So, we put a report together to our senior partners in the United States and we got a small fund from the National Institute of Health (NIH).and from that fund, we tried to do a demography of Hadejia town where we studied about 1,500 people with the aim of finding out the prevalence and possible causes of kidney disease in the area.
“The study is ongoing in Hadejia and we are trying to close out completely in the next few months. The fund we had was small and could only do a preliminary investigation. We’re working with the Jigawa State Ministry of Health,” he said.
He said the thinking now, while study is ongoing in Hadejia, is that the cause of disease might be from the water, which is sourced from Hadejia River, where they also fish.
``We also heard of some practices where people use some kind of chemicals to kill fishes in the river. So, we are looking at the fishes too. We are also looking at the ground water from wells. We have taken all the samples for analysis and we have continued to collect blood, stool, urine and saliva samples from participants. We also had an engagement with leaders from the community,’’ he said.
Apart from the prevalence of renal disease, the DG disclosed that the results of screening carried out during the recent World Hepatitis Day, also revealed a high prevalence of hepatitis in Hadejia, compared to the average prevalence in the country.
“We looked at their blood bank and we saw that the prevalence among blood donors was much higher even though this may be among risk individuals. So, we are beginning to think that perhaps, this may be linked to the high prevalence of chronic kidney disease in Hadejia. We have not analysed, as the study is ongoing and we are beginning to think of closing up to look at the results.
``The idea is if we find out that the prevalence of kidney disease in the region is much higher than the average national prevalence, then we will declare an epidemic of chronic kidney disease in the region and that will call for significant government attention to work with us to unravel what the cause may be,” he added.
The Director, Public Health, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Evelyn Ngige, did not respond to calls and text messages sent to her to find out if the ministry was aware of the situation and what it was doing to tackle the menace.