Underdiagnosis has been named as one of the main reasons contributing to rising cases of Kidney problems among children.
Speaking during the flagging off of a World Kidney Day march in Eldoret, the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Wilson Aruasa admitted that the country has failed to recognize or correctly diagnose Kidney problems among children due to a shortage of trained health specialists.
“We have not trained many specialists, nurses, doctors, and other health care providers to diagnosis or to identify children with kidney problems, and as MTRH we have let other counties do that,” revealed Dr. Aruasa.
“We are not diagnosing particularly children because we have not been trained to identify, but we want to train more,” he added.
Similar sentiments were shared by Dr. Philip Chepting’a, the Head of Renal Services at MTRH, who noted that other diseases such as malaria also can cause kidney failures.
Dr. Chepting’a however expressed concerns over some of the communities still using herbal medicine to treat Kidney problems in children.
“We have realized that in our country, we still use a lot of herbs and a large number of children have had kidney failure as a result of the use of herbs,” he said.
The kidney specialist also urged the entire society to work closely with health officers to prevent chronic diseases.
MTRH, however, offers rental services to tens of hundreds of children with kidney problems from across the North Rift region and parts of western Kenya.
Currently, the hospital which is the second-largest health facility in the country is hosting at least 10 children who are on renal services.
According to Dr. Aruasa, exercising, eating a balanced diet, a high level of activity and drinking clean water, and sanitation are some of the most important measures one can take to prevent kidney complications and other chronic diseases like Cancer and High Blood Pressure.
Statistics indicate that 1 in every 10 persons has a kidney disease while four million Kenyans have chronic kidney diseases. Out of these, about 10,000 people have end-stage renal disease and require dialysis yet only 10 percent of those are able to access the services.
