Costly dialysis puts kidney patients to premature death

The treatment of kidney disease in Bangladesh is still insufficient putting the rising number of renal patients in a fix. Currently, around two crore people are suffering from some kind of kidney disease. Of them, about 40,000 suffer from long-term kidney ailments. At one stage, their kidneys become completely damaged, and then they have no other way but transplantation.
Amid such a situation, Bangladesh observed World Kidney Day on Thursday (March 9) with the theme ‘Kidney Health for All – preparing for the unexpected, supporting the vulnerable!’
According to medical experts and Kidney Foundation, kidney diseases are spreading due to diabetes, high blood pressure, pain in kidney, taking painkillers, excessive use of antibiotics, taking herbal medicines, drinking contaminated water and eating adulterated food. They mentioned that diabetes and high blood pressure are closely linked to kidney diseases. It is shocking as Bangladesh Renal Association mentions, 80 percent of kidney patients die after short-term treatment or without any treatment for want of money. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics survey found that 28,017 people had died from kidney disease in 2020.
It is to be noted that kidney treatment in Bangladesh is not easily available. It has not yet reached the village level. The number of kidney transplants is still very low because of the absence of kidney donors. In addition, just a few hospitals can transplant kidneys, and a kidney transplant operation costs between Tk 2.6 lakh and Tk 3.5 lakh. On top of that, one also has to pay the person who gives the kidney. Under these circumstances, dialysis is the only option when a kidney becomes dysfunctional. At private facilities, patients have to spend Tk12,000 to Tk15,000 per week for dialysis. Patients are compelled to go to private hospitals because of the shortage of machines at government hospitals.
A significant number of charitable organizations, including Gonoshasthaya Kendra, provide subsidies to kidney dialysis for the poor charging only Tk 500. According to the Kidney Awareness Monitoring and Prevention Society, due to high treatment cost, 40 percent people stop kidney dialysis after doing it for three to four months due to the high cost.
As kidney treatment is one of the most expensive treatments patients have to go for dialysis twice or thrice a week until death along with other drugs, the concerned authority must ensure universal health coverage by providing dialysis services and transplants free of cost to the kidney patients.