Medics call for battle on kidney injury

DEUS NGOWI in Moshi

A MEDICAL expert has highlighted prevention of deaths from Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) as a basic human right globally to have zero deaths by 2025. Prof Venance Maro, an expert with the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC), said the right to live was accepted by both the ruling and opposition parties as enunciated in the country’s constitution.

“The International Society for Nephrology (ISN) has initiated a campaign of Zero by 25 which simply means that globally by 2025 we should obtain zero deaths from preventable AKI by collective timely intervention,” he said. He made the remark when he was delivering a keynote speech at the 89th post-graduate seminar at KCMC with a theme ‘Prevention of deaths from acute kidney injury’.
The centre holds such seminars bi-annually. He said that some observers have said the ability to provide life-saving treatments for AKI provides a compelling argument to consider therapy for AKI as much as basic right as it is to give Antiretroviral (ARVs) to treat HIV/AIDS in resource limited settings. Prof Maro said the Nephrology Society of Tanzania (NESOT) should realise and recognise that endeavour and join ISN human right campaign. He said globally, AKI is a serious public health problem and that Tanzania is not an exception.
“In high income countries, AKI develops in hospitalised patients as available data shows up to 300 patients per a million of population had AKI treated with renal replacement therapy,” he said. In low income countries, Prof Maro said more AKI occurs in community settings associated with diarrhoeal diseases, dehydration, toxins and infections such as malaria.
“These are mainly attributed to issues like contaminated water, poor sanitation, endemic infections (malaria and dengue) and use of traditional medicines driven by low social economic status,” he said. The Demographic and Health Survey of 2016 reported 67 deaths per 1,000 live births of under-fives since 1999 although the numbers seemed to have improved.
Prof Maro said three pronged strategies have been proposed in raising awareness of AKI in the community. “Given paucity of data, a situation analysis on the magnitude of the problem and risks is a reasonable starting point,’ he said. He revealed that Tanzania literature review shows that only two reports of AKI were published for Muhimbili National Referral Hospital KCMC