World Kidney Day is a global campaign that aims to raise awareness of the importance of our kidneys to our overall health and to reduce the frequency and impact of kidney disease and its associated health problems worldwide. WKD is celebrated every second Thursday in March. To shed more light on this topic, we speak to a senior tutor in nursing and midwifery Mrs Rethabile Ts’ita Thaele (MPH). She holds a Masters in Public Health.
According to WHO 2020 data kidney disease deaths are at 1,015 or 3.05% of total deaths in Lesotho. And kidney disease is number 10 of the leading causes of death in Lesotho. It’s therefore significant to commemorate world kidney day to remind Basotho the severity of kidney disease and the give health education to continually take care of our health to prevent occurrence and to minimize effects for those who have the disease. Kidney disease is the 4th commonest in Africa.
Briefly share some common kidney diseases in Lesotho
The most common kidney disease in Lesotho is renal failure (chronic kidney disease or end of stage renal disease diagnosed at advanced stages (Lesotho medical journal 2021:22). Common cause of kidney diseases are hypertension and diabetes. These causes of kidney disease can be avoided by modification of dietary and lifestyle, example, eating unsaturated fats, avoiding alcohol, exercising, even though they can be genetically passed from generation to generation. If one is born in a family with hypertension and diabetes genes are inherited. The modification of diet and lifestyle will keep the genes non dominant. Risk factors of kidney diseases include obesity, been an elder person, family history of kidney failure
And how they can be avoided?
Kidney diseases can be avoided by losing weight, quitting smoking, eating foods lower in salt, eating more fruits, managing blood glucose levels and managing blood pressure and cholesterol level (center of disease control-CDC)