Nigeria’s kidney disease epidemic

It is fact that kidney disease (renal failure) has become a huge problem affecting millions of people all over the world. Unfortunately, the disease burden is increasing among Nigerians with its physical, social and financial debilitations. In recent times, the increasing incidence of kidney failure has become a real source of worry in the country.
The burdens associated with the disease have financially impoverished both sufferers and their families alike, even as stories of affected Nigerians continue to make media headline every day.
What is kidney or renal failure? It is when the kidneys are no longer working well enough for a person to live without dialysis or a kidney transplant. Medical experts have attributed the causes of the disease to include diabetes mellitus and long-term uncontrolled hypertension, chronic inflammation of the kidney, junks and fatty foods, advanced Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) disease, indiscriminate consumption of herbal medicines and alcoholic beverages. Others, are untreated microbial infection, diarrhoea, malaria, potassium bromate poisoning, abuse of painkillers particularly paracetamol.
Statistics by the Nigeria Association of Nephrology reveal that more nearly 38 million Nigerians of the country’s 170 million population are suffering from various forms of kidney diseases. In addition, records show that the disease affects an estimated 17,000 new patients yearly. Increasingly, children are now the worst hit with a prevalence rate of 22.3 admissions per 1000 child admissions per annum. Sadly, managing kidney related diseases is expensive even for the rich. Estimates put the cost of caring for kidney patients at about N130 billion annually of which a larger percentage goes for foreign medical tourism.
Managing kidney-related diseases is complicated, even as its prevalence has become a problem in our environment. Survey shows that one out of every seven Nigerians has one stage of chronic kidney disease. Unfortunately, of the 50,000 patients, who should ideally be on dialysis, less than 1,000 are receiving one presently. Incidentally, the good news is that some causes of kidney failure are treatable and the kidney function may return to normal. Unfortunately, the disease may be progressive in other situations and therefore be irreversible. Even at that, there is a lack of government funding for treatment in Nigeria unlike some countries such as Rwanda and South Africa. This leaves the entire burden to individuals who most often are unable to bear the cost for too long.
It is painful to note that only a handful of Nigerian hospitals have the dialysis machines, which ideally should be spread across the country to tackle issues of kidney failure.  We are therefore calling for the subsidisation of kidney treatments in the country, given that most patients cannot afford the treatments. In all, combating kidney failure among Nigerians implies mounting massive sensitisation and public awareness campaigns on the risk factors behind it.
For this to be accomplished, governments at all levels should take a holistic approach to chronic diseases prevention, early identification and intervention, even as we recommend that social, behavioural and biological determinants of health be addressed within the framework of an overarching national chronic diseases’ strategy.
Fundamentally, however, the government and health policy makers need to have scientific projections on the trend, with a view to putting in place a framework for investing and funding renal treatment centres across the country.