Chandani Kirinde

Four hours a day, three days a week, 60-year-old D. Gunatillake spends his time hooked onto a Dialysis machine at the Padaviya Base Hospital (PBH). It’s been his weekly routine for the past six months, since he was detected with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). Gunatillake and seven others fill the Haemodialysis Unit of the PBH to capacity each day except Sundays, to clean the machines. For Gunatillake and hundreds of others across the North Central Province (NPC) suffering from CKD, these machines are their only lifeline, with a kidney transplant as the only alternative.

“I no longer have any strength in my body, but I still take a bus from my village which is about 8 km away, to get here three days a week. Sometimes when I get too tired, I only visit two days a week,” Gunatillake said.

He was once a healthy farmer working more than three acres of paddy land. It was about 10 years ago, when two of his brothers and a sister were detected with CKD, and all died within a few years. He was first diagnosed with the disease two years ago, and was initially treated with medicine until his condition got acute, following which he was referred for Dialysis.

“I can no longer work in the fields due to poor health, so my wife and I now live on Govt assistance given to CKD patients," said Gunatillake, as he waited his turn on the Dialysis machine.

His story, tragically, is also the story of hundreds of villagers in the NCP, and more so in Padviya and surrounding villages where the prevalence of CKD among the population has reached alarming proportions. Many of them also fall into the category of those suffering from CKD of unknown aiteology (CKDu), a condition, the cause of which still remains speculative, with medical personnel and researchers going to and fro guessing the cause of the high prevalence, particularly among the farming community in the NPC. While exposure to agrochemicals, drinking hard water with elevated fluoride levels and dehydration caused by long hours exposed to extremely hot temperatures, are cited as some of the causes, doctors at PBH are seeing that many of those suffering from CKD in the area, also suffer from hypertension, diabetes and other