India has a large number of patients suffering from chronic kidney disease (CKD) and many of them need dialysis and renal transplantation.
Though the exact official number of patients with CKD or those who are undergoing dialysis or have undergone kidney transplantation is not available since a National Registry or a network do not exist in India, the problem is huge and relief is not adequate, HoD of Nephrology of Andhra Medical College and King George Hospital G. Prasad has said.
Out of one hundred patients needing kidney transplantation, only 20 will receive donation, either live or through cadaver, and the rest have to be on dialysis, Dr. Prasad explains. Keeping this in view, cadaver transplantation is being encouraged. In Visakhapatnam, nearly 25 cadaver kidney transplantations have been performed during the last one year.
Jeevan Daan
Cadaver transplantations are taking place under the Jeevan Daan programme of the government in which the list of those seeking organs is prepared and are provided organs harvested from brain-dead persons. Diabetes and hypertension are the two main causes for CKD and the problem is also observed in children (under 18 years). Genetic abnormality is the main reason for kidney problem among children.
Vice-Chancellor of NTR University of Health Sciences T. Raviraju, who formulated the Jeevan Daan programme when he was DME of the combined State, said here recently that cadaver donation would be given the much-needed publicity.
He recalled the way people reacted when the heart and lungs of a brain-dead person were taken to the Gannavaram airport in an ambulance to be airlifted by an air ambulance to Chennai through the “green channel” created by the traffic police. “They were throwing flower petals on the vehicle,” Dr. Raviraju said with the hope that this kind of response would really boost the Jeevan Daan programme.
