Health News of Thursday, 25 June 2015

Source: GNA

Enterprise Group supports Police Hospital

The Enterprise Group Limited, has donated a dialysis machine to the Police Hospital to cater for the treatment of people with kidney disorders.

The equipment, acquired at the cost of GH? 67, 600.00, would enable the hospital to treat more patients whose kidneys are not working properly.

Currently, more than 2.5 million Ghanaians are exposed to kidney diseases.

The function of the kidneys is to purify the body by removing waste and excess fluid. Dialysis is a treatment used for people whose kidneys don't work properly.

Dialysis is intended to keep the body running as normal as possible while the kidneys are under repair or while a person waits for a kidney transplant.

Without working kidneys or dialysis, salts and other waste products would accumulate in the blood and poison the person.

Presenting the machine to the Hospital, the Enterprise Group Chief Executive, Mr Keli Gadzekpo, said the move was to respond to an alarming situation, especially considering the large number of people who are affected by the disease.

“We know it should be more than this but it is a good beginning. We expect to keep the relationship going," he said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dr) Seidu Mohammed Zakariah, Medical Director Police Hospital, said about 10 per cent of the Ghanaian population is at risk of experiencing renal failure through kidney injury.

He said it is not only persons suffering from chronic diseases that need dialysis, saying even untreated malaria, road traffic accident victims, and burns could affect the kidney and place people at risk.

Such persons might need a few sessions of dialysis.

The machine is expected to help treat 4,800 patients in 10 years. Currently, a machine could treat three people a day.