PAKISTAN Society of Nephrology (PSM) has made a landmark
achievement by establishing Pakistan Renal Registry (PRR), first of its kind in the country to create a mega database of kidney related diseases and patients. Up till now Pakistan was lagging behind in research on impact of kidney diseases, data registry and had to depend on international health organisations but as stated by PSM President Prof Dr Waqar Ahmad at the 12th biennial conference of the Society, establishment of the registry will go a long way in enabling renal healthcare providers to identify their strengths and weaknesses and determine where more effort is required.
Nobody can deny the importance of patient registries as they provide relevant data that describe disease burden, treatments and outcomes that can be used to improve patient care. We are sure that data accessibility to the researchers and medical practitioners will be ensured through PRR in order to make headways in the treatment of kidney diseases in Pakistan. Government also needs to fully support and facilitate bodies such as PSM to bring overall improvement in the healthcare system and for the treatment of such serious diseases. Pakistan ranks eighth in kidney diseases causing 20,000 deaths every year while 20 million people suffer from it. Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is rapidly growing in the country due to late diagnosis, kidney stone disease and increasing number of patients suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure. The transplantation still has a long way to go, as there are only few government hospitals that are equipped with infrastructure and technical expertise to perform transplantation.
Apart from building infrastructure that provides state of the art treatment facilities to kidney patients, it is also important that special campaigns are also started to raise awareness amongst the masses for prevention of such diseases. Self-medication or excessive use of medicine, low water intake, obesity, diabetes, hypertension and renal stones are a few common causes of kidney diseases. To avoid kidney diseases, it is necessary that diet and lifestyle should be healthy and people should live a simple and active life. The best way to prevent kidney failure is an early diagnosis of underlying disease and aggressive treatment otherwise, permanent kidney damage occurs that can prove fatal.