A Professor of Nephrology, Iftifanus Bosan, says that early diagnosis through regular medical checks and screenings remains the way to reduce the costs of kidney disease treatment.
Bosan, a Lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, said this in an interview on Tuesday in Lagos.
He decried the high cost of treating or managing kidney diseases in any part of the world, attributing that to the major reason many who could not afford the bills had lost their lives.
He identified late diagnosis and presentation as the causative factor that made the cost of managing/treating kidney disease too expensive because most cases were presented late at its fifth stage.
According to him, if the kidney disease is diagnosed early enough, there are chances that its failure will be prevented for decades while the patient lives a normal life.
“Kidney disease treatment is expensive everywhere in the world; to do kidney transplant or dialysis costs a lot of money anywhere.
“In my own opinion, the only way cost of kidney disease management can be reduced is, if the disease is diagnosed much earlier and treatment started.
“When treatment is administered at earlier stage when the situation has not been complicated, the cost is usually very minimal because there are medications that can be used to control the BP and sugar level, which in most cases, are the primary causes.
“But if the case is presented late, the cost of managing it must be high and someone has to bear it.
“Even if the treatment is covered by any insurance scheme or the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS); it means that the financial burden will be shifted to the third party, which will either be the government or other insurers.
“The truth remains that the costs will certainly be there,” Bosan said.
The Nephrologist said that more people were likely to develop kidney diseases due to the current economic hardship in Nigeria, which had made it difficult for people to effectively manage or control their Blood Pressure (BP) and diabetes.
He explained that uncontrolled BP and diabetes were the primary factors that could cause kidney diseases.
The nephrologist, therefore, urged the public to care for their vital organs, especially their kidneys and submit themselves for regular screening so that conditions that might result in the disease would be detected early and tackled.
He said that often, people die of various diseases because they failed to go for medical checks and screening early enough.
The consultant listed some risk factors of kidney failure including diabetes, hypertension, hereditary, heart disease, smoking, alcoholism, glomerulonephritis and atherosclerosis, among others.
Bosan noted that the complicated and scary situations could be salvaged if routine health checks were done.
He said there are two types of kidney failures, namely: “Acute kidney and chronic kidney failures.
“Stages of kidney failures are five. Stage one, which is very mild is kidney damage, to stage five, which is complete failure.
“Treatment is easier and very affordable at stage one.
“The early investigation includes Urinalysis/urine culture, full blood count, and urea/creatinine level, electrolyte sedimentation rate and estimated glomerular filtration.
“The treatment and management of the kidney include control of blood pressure, blood sugar level, a limit to alcohol, and healthy weight.
“Others are exercises, low fat intake, no to smoking, low salt intake, timely visit to doctors and when bad, dialysis becomes an option, which may be followed by transplant in extreme cases,” he said.
NAN
