Accra, March 11, GNA - High blood pressure and diabetes have been identified as risk factors of Chronic Kidney Disorders (CKD), Head of the Renal Unit of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr. Charlotte Osafo, said on Thursday.

She said CKD was a silent killer and explained that the disease had no symptoms but sometimes, swollen ankles, tiredness and anaemia which are common to most ailments, come to associate with it at the latter stage of the disease. Speaking at the second World Kidney Day in Ghana, she urged Ghanaians to face up to the harsh realities of the disease to check if they were at risk.

Dr. Osafo said symptoms manifest at the latter stages or until the kidneys fail to function (Kidney failure) which called for lifetime dialysis treatment or transplantation. According to her, dialysis is often not an option in the developing world because it was very expensive. The day was observed on the theme; 'Protect your kidney, control diabetes".

She said while it was commonly known that lifestyle changes of the past decade had led to an increase in diabetes cases and cardiovascular diseases, many people still ignore advise and hang on to those conditions that generated the outburst of kidney disorders. Dr. Osafo noted that nearly one billion people worldwide had high blood pressure and more than 600 million have CKD.

The Kidney Day campaign, she said was therefore, aimed at educating the public to become aware of common risk factors for diseases such as high blood pressure adding that taking early action to have the kidney checked could help avoid a bad situation.

Dialysis, she further noted, was not the final treatment for kidney failure but served as a stop gap towards transplant which was more convenient and a less expensive way of dealing with the condition. She said: "though Kidney transplant was still expensive ranging from 10,000, 30,000 and 50,000 Ghana cedis depending on the country involved, it improved the quality of live and was relatively cheaper than dialysis as well as reducing the financial burden on family and friends". In Ghana, it was estimated that 3,000 persons develop CKD each year and very few survive because of the high cost of kidney dialysis treatment. Tragically, the majority of individuals who suffer from CKD were young people between age 20 and 50.

Currently, each operation would cost about 30,000 Ghana cedis but the Ghana Kidney Foundation assist patients by footing part of their bills adding, donors were carefully examined before their kidneys were harvested to enable them to live healthily with one kidney.