North West department of Health marks the World Kidney day under the theme: Kidney health for all
The North West department of Health, MEC Madoda Sambatha joins the world to commemorate World Kidney Day on March 10 to raise awareness about the various kidney diseases that exist and how they can affect one’s life. The human body requires a kidney to function properly and without a healthy one, even the simplest of tasks become a dire task. As a result, hundreds of events are held around the world on this day to raise awareness about kidney health.
This includes things like public screenings, seminars, and marathons, among other things. The goal is to raise awareness about kidney health and how people can live a long and disease-free life.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common and harmful: 1 out of 10 adult people worldwide have it, and if left untreated it can be deadly. While early detection allows for disease care and management to help prevent morbidity and mortality, and improve cost effectiveness and sustainability, kidney disease related mortality continues to increase yearly and is projected to be the 5th leading cause of death by 2040. A persistent and ongoing CKD knowledge gap exists, one that is demonstrable at all levels of healthcare.
The World Kidney Day Joint Steering Committee has declared 2022 to be the year of “Kidney Health for All”. Specifically, it calls on all of us to work to bridge the knowledge gaps to better kidney care. The 2022 campaign will focus on efforts to increase education and awareness about kidney health and on reducing the stubbornly high CKD knowledge gap at all levels of kidney care.
On World Kidney Day, all governments are encouraged to take action and invest in additional kidney screening, lab values, and hospitalizations rates with reimbursements being affected positively or negatively if targets are not met. Protocol developments by insurers and hospital systems and guidelines have reinforced the emphasis on data. This year’s theme reframes kidney disease care as improving outcomes so that patients can continue to participate in their lives. The theme also emphasizes that meeting laboratory goals and adhering to protocols does not imply that the patient is being properly cared for.
It has been estimated that 10% of the world's population has some degree of CKD. From this statistic, it can be estimated that 5 million South Africans >20 years of age have CKD, and in black South Africans the figure is almost certainly higher.
“As the department of Health we strive to provide the best healthcare services to all our community members as such we urge our people to take full advantage of these services for treatment and prevention of such chronic as kidney disease” said MEC Sambatha
Media enquiries:
Tebogo Lekgethwane
Cell: 067 422 7763
E-mail: tlekgethwane@nwpg.gov.za
Motlalepula Lekoma
Cell: 082 089 7117
E-mail: LekomaM@nwpg.gov.za
