MPs urge Ghanaians to be cautious of lifestyle choices
Members of Parliament (MPs) last Thursday urged Ghanaians to be cautious of their lifestyle choices to avoid getting kidney diseases. They have also called for chronic kidney failure patients to be added to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
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They specifically cautioned the public against excessive alcohol intake, smoking, abuse of herbal medicines and aphrodisiacs and failure for hypertension patients to take their drugs regularly.
World Kidney Day
The MP for Manso-Adubia, Mr Yaw Frimpong Addo, and the MP for Binduri, Dr Robert Baba Kuganab-Lem, set the tone when they made statements on the floor of Parliament to mark World Kidney Day.
The theme for this year's celebration is: "Kidney Disease and Obesity - Healthy Lifestyle for Healthy Kidneys."
Mr Addo said kidney disease was mainly caused by progression of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and inflammation of the kidneys.
He said other causes included too much intake of alcohol, herbal medicines, aphrodisiacs and smoking.
Silent killer
Mr Addo expressed worry that many people were unaware they were at risk of developing kidney disease, hence it was deemed a silent killer.
He said statistics from the National Kidney Foundation from 2008 to 2012 indicated a continual increase in reported kidney cases in Ghana.
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He said in 2012, more than 3,612 kidney malfunction cases were reported at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital alone, aside from the unreported cases in other parts of the country.
Mr Addo said kidney disease was a terminal disease that was very expensive to treat in Ghana. A weekly dialysis of a patient cost GH¢500 apart from the drugs that were used to control the blood pressure.
Consequently, Mr Addo said, many patients died as a result as their respective families went into financial difficulties.
He said it was unfortunate that the NHIS did not cover renal therapy, and stressed the need for Parliament to support the inclusion of renal therapy in the scheme.
Dr Baba Kuganab-Lem said kidney patients needed to be supported to get improved treatments.
He stressed the need for more awareness to be created of the disease to save people from developing it.
Lifestyles
The MP for Ledzokuku, Dr Bernard Okoe Boye, said one-third of Ghanaians had high blood pressure but only one-third of that number were on drugs to control their blood pressure.
Besides, he said, many people took wrong dosages of herbal medicines, and indicated that all those factors contributed to the increased cases of kidney diseases in the country.
The MP for Klottey Korle, Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, stressed the need for people to engage in regular exercises to reduce their risk of getting infected.