More men prone to kidney diseases

by Mohammed NAALIR

Of the 700 kidney patients in three provinces in the country 68.3 percent are men and the remaining 31.7 percent are women, according to a survey jointly conducted by the Ministry of Indigenous Medicine, North Central Province and Bandaranaike Ayurvedic Medical Research Institute at Navinna.

The survey covering the North Central, Uva and North Western Provinces was conducted to ascertain the prime cause for kidney disease in those regions and to seek remedial measures. The findings of the survey were highlighted recently at a ceremony at the Bandaranaike Ayurvedic Medical Research Institute at Navinna under the patronage of Minister of Indigenous Medicine Salinda Dissanayake.The survey revealed that drinking polluted water from tanks, eating kohila and lotus yams grown in places close to water tanks and eating fresh water fish without removing the skin are some of the causes for kidney diseases.

Twenty-thousand kidney patients had been detected between 1969 and 2010 of which 3,000 patients died.

Twenty new patients are treated every week for kidney diseases, according to a spokesman for the Bandaranaike Ayurvedic Medical Institute.