Living well with kidney disease" is this year's theme for World Kidney Day, which is celebrated every second Thursday in March to promote awareness of the necessary and possible actions to control the disease.
Beyond the palliative treatments of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), the day is aimed at highlighting the proper empowerment of the patient, so that he feels motivated and becomes an active participant in the effective management of symptoms and their treatment.
About 10 percent of the world's population is affected by CKD and more than two million people receive dialysis treatment or an organ transplant, according to statistics released by the Steering Committee for World Kidney Day, which has been celebrated since 2006, at the initiative of the International Society of Nephrology and the International Federation of Renal Foundations.
In Cuba, disease prevention and care actions begin in Primary Health Care, through the family doctor and nurse offices in the community, by identifying and modifying risk factors, early screening of the patient and consultation with the nephrologist.
The island has a Program for Chronic Kidney Disease, Dialysis and Transplantation, 56 nephrology services, nine transplant centers, a National Transplant Organization, as well as advanced immunological studies, and more than two thousand professionals treat patients in Replacement Therapy of Renal Function.
There are currently more than 3,500 patients on chronic hemodialysis in the country, about 80 on peritoneal dialysis and more than 1,000 people with kidney transplants. In this last aspect, Cuba is the second nation in Latin America in the transplant rate per million inhabitants, which in the case of kidney transplants is 16.
In the face of kidney disease, specialists recommend: to avoid sedentary lifestyle, regularly control blood glucose levels, monitor blood pressure, eat properly and keep weight under control, have a healthy fluid intake, do not smoke or self-medicate and check kidney function if you have one or more risk factors.
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