WORLD KIDNEY DAY

Every year World Kidney is celebrated on the second Thursday of March. It is the global awareness campaign to raise awareness of the importance of kidneys to our health and to reduce the impact of kidney disease and its associated health problems worldwide. National Dialysis Programme under the National Health Mission is an initiative of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. It was rolled out in 2016 with the involvement of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP Mode) at District Hospitals. The objective of this program is to provide important life-saving procedure close to the community and also for reducing impoverishment on account of out-of-pocket expenditure for patients.
Talking with Ajay Bhandarkar who is a Urologist in Sujoy Hospital, practising since last 25 years regarding World Kidney day talks about how to be precautious, kidney’s health-related issues, symptoms, its cure, etc. He says, people have started becoming conscious about their health comparatively in last one decade. When it comes to kidney-related issues people sometimes get anxiety about the same. He further says that kidney-related issues cause because of uncontrolled diabetes and blood pressure. There are also circumstances when there are internal factors that are affecting the kidney silently and one does not realize it for long and so it sometimes even becomes difficult to diagnose the same from beginning itself. There is medical terminology used for the same which is autoimmune, that is they directly affect the kidney tissues, internal blood vessels, etc.
Dr. Bhandarkar on symptoms of the kidney related issues says that basic symptoms include feeling weakness, haemoglobin issues that is one feels restless, one does not feel hungry, one feels uneasy, with these symptoms one can realize that their kidney function is compromised. He further says a person who has uncontrolled diabetes or blood pressure, that is if their diabetes remain above 200 and blood pressure above 120 on regular basis, they should have regular checkups otherwise these kinds of situation affect kidney a lot. Also, higher doses given during malaria or viral treatment or cancer treatment can cause kidney related issues. There are cases when one has a regular habit of intake of pain killers for long period of time, that is for around 15 to 20 years, may also cause kidney related issues.
On the occasion of World Kidney Day, Dr. Ajay Bhandarkar advises everyone that if one is having uncontrolled diabetes or blood pressure should have regular checkups and also when one crosses the age of 40 and 50, they should have regular body checkups, and be precautious enough.