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Foundation aims to take kidney disease awareness countrywide
Kaieteur News – About 10 percent of the world’s population is affected by Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), with over two million people globally receiving either dialysis treatment or having benefitted from a kidney transplant. Celebrated on March 11, World Kidney Day (WKD) 2021, which focused on “Kidney Health for Everyone, everywhere –Living Well with Kidney Disease”, aimed to increase education and awareness on effective symptom management and patient empowerment. The WKD campaign stressed that with timely identification and appropriate treatment, patients with kidney disease can lead a healthy and successful life and maintain their role and social functioning in line with their priorities, values and goals.
The global call to action centred on improving patients’ understanding of their role, and providing a facilitating environment that improves their skills and allows them to get the most out of the healthcare system. Locally, the Kidney Foundation of Guyana (KFG) has been in the forefront of this year’s observance for World Kidney Day, with the hope of raising public awareness on CKD and its contributing factors in Guyana. The Foundation has since lauded its success in spearheading a number of activities to mark the occasion in collaboration with the Chronic Disease Unit of the Ministry of Health, the Nephrology Department of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation and the University of Calgary in Canada. The activities planned include a series of CME’s which have been continuous and cover a wide range of topics on renal health and media guest appearances by doctors, patients and caregivers in the print and broadcast media. Among one of the highlights in observing World Kidney Day in Guyana every year, is an annual walk, which has not been possible due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Foundation noted in its release that it has been finding effective ways in reaching the Guyanese populace with the use of the local media and its social media platforms. It added, the media houses, both print and broadcast, have been very supportive in sensitising the population during the month of March. Educational sessions for medical professionals and patients, it noted, were done virtually via the Zoom platform and social media but mainly through the Foundation’s Facebook page. “The KFG has received tremendous response to its outreaches and applauds the support of the local media, the public, patients and their caregivers, and members of the local medical fraternity, in its public awareness drive,” the release added. For the remainder of 2021 and beyond, the Foundation is poised to take its public awareness and sensitisation drive on CKD countrywide. It will focus on addressing issues that patients and caregivers are faced with, and educating the public on risk reduction strategies so as to reduce the burden of CKD. According to the release too, the Foundation hopes to engage other organisations and stakeholders with the aim of improving the quality of life and reducing the mortality rates among those living with kidney disease in Guyana.
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