A three-day screening exercise for renal diseases is underway at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (CCTH) as part of activities to mark this year’s World Kidney Day which comes off on March 12.

Dr. Yaw Asante Awuku, head of the dialysis unit at the (CCTH), said the exercise was to create awareness and educate people about the disease.
He said kidney related problems had been on the increase in the country as one out of every 10 patients admitted into the medical ward of the hospital had kidney problems whiles 15% of such admissions at the Kole bu Teaching Hospital also had similar problems.
He expressed worry about the increasing number and added that there was the need for people to check the status of their kidneys.
Dr. Awuku cautioned Ghanaians to be mindful of the medicine and food they take as high blood pressure, diabetes, self-medication among others had been identified as the major causes of the disease.
He said the cost of treating kidney problems was huge and appealed to Ghanaians especially the youth to shun bad attitudes and behaviour such as alcoholism, use of aphrodisiac and many others that were likely to damage the kidney.
Mrs. Irene Alottey Jacobs, nursing head at the renal unit at the CCTH, said the disease was silently killing many people and many are not even aware of its existence.
She called on the government, non-governmental organizations, religious institutions and well-endowed persons in the society to come to the aid of the patients at the dialysis/renal unit to subsidize their treatment bills.
A twenty-three year old Akosua Effah Boakye, a patient at the renal unit, appealed to the government to, as a matter of urgency, roll patients of kidney problems onto the national health insurance scheme to mitigate some of the financial burden because the cost involved was too much.

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