More needed to â€˜beatâ€™ kidney disease

Deputy President William Ruto chats with Joshua Kipchirchir and Dennis Kipngeno at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital when he visited them. The DP later gave a donation that saw them leave for specialised treatment in India. [PHOTO: PETER OCHIENG/STANDARD]

Today, scientists from all over the world gather in Cape Town, South Africa for the 2015 World Congress of Nephrology (WCN) set to run until next Tuesday.

Under the theme 'Kidney health for all', the five day programme cultivates optimism on future strategies that will make it possible for kidney patients to have access to treatment.

Speaking to The Standard, Rift Valley Kidney and Lupus Foundation Chairperson Titus Terigin hailed this gathering of minds saying kidney disease is a reality in Kenya which afflicts many.

"We have lost many due to poverty and lack of medical assistance and it is a high time counties established renal treatment units while the Government reduces the cost of doing transplants," he said.

TRANSPLANT NEEDED

In an apparent reference to the recent launch of the Sh38 billion healthcare equipment by the President which was rejected by governors, Mr Terigin wondered why counties would want to stifle the Government's plans for improved health care provision to its citizens.

"Governors ought to accept the equipment which includes dialysis, cancer and heart machines if they want to win the fight against chronic diseases which are very costly to treat and/or manage," he said.

And no-one knows this better than 14-year-old Joshua Kipchirchir who had been admitted to the Moi Teaching Referral Hospital (MTRH) last year suffering from chronic renal failure.

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The young boy had been admitted for several months at the hospital and it was here that he was told he required a kidney transplant operation, probably in India, in order to get well.

A couple of million shillings would be needed to make this trip and Kipchirchir's father, David Birgen, had no option but to keep his son at MTRH as he tried his best to raise the necessary funds.

MORE MONEY

It was at this hospital that The Standard and KTN caught up with the young boy, who was then sitting for his KCPE exam at the ward because he was too frail to go to school, and highlighted his plight.

The response was overwhelming and when Deputy President William Ruto visited him at his bed in MTRH, Birgen knew that the funds needed to take his child for specialised treatment would be realised.

The DP offered financial assistance to the 14-year-old while other well wishers stepped in making it possible for him to make the trip to India.

At Columbia Asia Hospital in India, doctors discovered that the minor also had acute tuberculosis and they had to postpone the kidney transplant procedure.

It is now three months and Kipchirchir, now 15, is back on his feet and fully recuperated from TB, but remains on dialysis as he waits for his father to donate his kidney.

Speaking to The Standard on phone from India, Birgen said his son's health has greatly improved and the transplant operation has been set for next month.

"We are hopeful that we shall be back home by May with my son fully recovered," he said.

They however, require more finances for their upkeep and medical tests since the TB treatment drained all the money they had traveled with.

"We are eternally grateful for the assistance we have already received but we are now in need of a further Sh1.5 million to see us through the transplant process," said the Kipkelion East resident.

Despite the challenges Kipchirchir and his family have faced, he still remains one of the lucky few who have been able to receive quick attention following a renal failure diagnosis.

Many have not been as lucky and this ought to make health sector stakeholders aggressively seek out locally available, affordable ways to offer treatment.