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Kidney illness prevention to enlist broadcasters

Written by magnolia_eic on 14 January 2010

IN the continuing fight to dialyze renal illness into a no-threat in the country, the government is now resorting to the powerful broadcast media to widen the advocacy.

Engaging the broadcast media and turning broadcasters into their newest converts in the war against renal disease which ends up fatal in its end stage, the government’s Renal Disease Control Program (REDCOP) manned by the National Kidney Transplant Institute (NKTI) of the Department of Health hopes to widen the information education communication campaign against the disease.

While broadcasters may not be the most able professionals talking about renal disease on the airlanes, the REDCOP has come up with an easy to follow broadcasters manual for the purpose, says program manager Dr. Remedios de Belen-Uriarte.

Speaking to keynote the Orientation-Briefing on the Broadcaster’s Manual for the Prevention of Kidney Diseases in Davao City, Dr. Uriarte pointed out that the government hopes to develop more advocates on the prevention of kidney disease.

To intensify the Information, Education and Communication as well as the advocacy on the prevention campaign, the gathering of selected broadcast practitioners from the four pilot regions in the country allowed the radio men to peep into the complex problem of renal disease and its issues, she added.

The DOH rated renal or kidney disease as one of the leading causes of death in the country in its 1997-2002 survey and monitoring data.

Kidneys perform vital life-maintaining functions as monitors and regulators of body fluids. They excrete excess body fluids and retains substances needed for the body’s continuing functions.

A non-functioning or diseased kidney causes imbalance in body fluids and can degenerate into multiple organ failures leading to death.

A bleaker scenario is even presented In its regional monitoring report which presents the disease in the sixth or seventh place.

In an annual report in 2008, the Philippine Renal Disease Registry noted 7,589 new patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who started dialysis. 82 patients have started pre-emptive transplants.

Dr. Uriarte said most patients with ESRD could not afford a restorative renal transplant, which can cost as high as half a million to a million excluding laboratory and medical expenses.

Even a palliative dialysis can be very restrictive, she pointed out.

Dialysis range from P2,500 in government subsidized to P7,000 in private hospitals, she said. (PIA)

PRESS RELEASE

by: REY ANTHONY CHIU
Philippine Information Agency
Tagbilaran City Information Center

411 2292 / 0920 954 5482 / 501 8554 email: piabohol171@yahoo.com

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