Experts alarmed over rising kidney disease cases

Kidney experts were alarmed over the tremendous increase in the number of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the country.

Remedios Uriarte, Kidney Foundation of the Philippines Inc. executive director, said dialysis centers nationwide have recorded a 15-percent increase of kidney patients since 2010.

“It is alarming because in 2009 the number of ESRD patients increased by 10 percent, but it rose 15 percent starting 2010 until now, it is continuously increasing in proportion to the population,” she said.

What is more alarming is the big gap between the big number of ESRD patients and the small number of kidney donors, Uriarte said.

In 2015, almost 14,000 patients with kidney disease started dialysis, while only 475 people, or 3.4 percent, received a kidney transplant, which means that only a few people are willing to donate one of their kidneys.

To address the problem, the KFPI, Maria Corazon Torres y Javier Foundation Inc. and the Kidney Transplant Association of the Philippines launched the Renal Gift Allowing Life for Others (REGALO) organ donation advocacy.

The groups have partnered with Novartis Healthcare Philippines.

Uriarte said REGALO aims to increase the number of ESRD patients getting kidney transplants through a successful organ donation campaign.

Kidney transplantation is still the best solution to resolve kidney failure as compared to dialysis so people will live a normal life, she added.

REGALO organizing committee head Romina Danguilan said that there is no harm living with only one kidney.

“All of us are born with a pair of kidneys and we can easily donate one of these kidneys yet live a normal life,” she said.

Former president Fidel Ramos, 88, who is living with a single kidney, spoke during the REGALO launch at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute.

He said that one of his kidneys was taken out when he was 22, or 66 years ago, after he suffered from tuberculosis in the kidney.

“I’m not a kidney donor or recipient,” he said.

“I just lost my kidney in 1950 due to tuberculosis… but I am still perfectly fine.