World Kidney Day: Majority of chronic kidney failure patients die within 5 years

Imagine spending about GHC4,000 to GHC6,000 each month as cost of treatment for your illness, yet have no guarantee for a cure. That is the sad reality for persons diagnosed with chronic kidney failure in Ghana.

As of now, there is no known cure for chronic kidney diseases thus, patients are expected to undergo a kidney transplant in order to increase their chances of survival or be put on permanent and consistent dialysis.

However, the latter, which is the case for many patients in Ghana is highly expensive for the average Ghanaian patient to afford.

Cost of a dialysis session at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital is GHC325 and patients are expected to have at least three sessions in a week.

As a result, majority of patients who begin dialysis end up losing their dear lives within five years of treatment or earlier. This is according to a nephrologist at the Renal Dialysis Unit of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Mensah Amoah.

He said “…averagely, about half of patients who go through dialysis in five years will be dead, averagely in Ghana. But it also depends on whether they are getting the other care, the other medication that they need to control their blood pressure and anaemia. Most of them are not getting these things because they are even struggling to get money to pay for their dialysis…So if you’re getting adequate dialysis and all the medications, then there’s a chance that the person may live beyond the five years but if not the person may even die earlier than that…”

Dr Amoah also remarked that due to the high cost of treatment, there have been several instances where patients have been denied access to treatment because of the huge amounts they owe.

It is for this reason that health professionals are advocating for protection of kidneys by every Ghanaian as Ghana joins other parts of the world to mark World Kidney Day, under the theme, ‘Kidney Health For Everyone Everywhere.’

Dr Mensah Amoah advised Ghanaians to adopt healthy lifestyles as a means of averting the permanent financial drain associated with treating the disease.

He emphasized that regular health check-up, exercising and abstinence from salty and overly spicy foods may be the best options as the disease barely has basic symptoms.