Association urges patients to seek timely help on 6th World Kidney Day
- Source: Global Times
- [11:23 March 11 2011]
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By Liu Dong
The Chinese Medical Association's Shanghai branch urged people with kidney problems Thursday to seek medical attention earlier rather than later to reduce future strains on the system, when the city will be burdened with providing dialysis treatment to some 400,000 kidney patients in the next five years.
The calls came on the 6th World Kidney Day, which experts took as an occasion to highlight the city's health issues related to kidney disease, problems that affect an estimated 11.8 percent of the population, a figure that has remained largely unchanged in recent years.
Some 10,000 of those affected by kidney disease depend on costly dialysis treatment, the local branch's association said.
According to Chen Nan, deputy director of nephrology for the Chinese Medical Association, the proportion of youth under the age of 30 and middle-aged people between the ages of 30 and 50, who suffer from glomerular nephritis, one of the most common kinds of kidney disease among Asian people, has increased by up to 50 percent over the past five years.
"Many people have a misunderstanding when it comes to kidney disease," she told the Global Times Thursday. "They don't think it will seriously affect their health until it's too late."
Chen said that 90 percent of kidney patients could be cured, or treated well, if only they would seek professional help earlier. But the reality is that only 8.2 percent of the people in the city with kidney disease end up seeking professional help, she said.
She added that waiting too long allows a patient's condition to worsen, and in extreme cases, the only solution is a kidney transplant - which is not always easy to obtain.