Over the last three days we have been in Lira city as the Uganda Kidney Foundation celebrating the world kidney day-2024. We had a conference in which we talked about current prevention and management of chronic kidney disease (CKD) attended by 165 professionals from across Uganda. We visited the Lira Regional Referral Hospital dialysis unit which currently has 50 patients. In the past, these patients would have had to travel for about 350 kilometers to Kampala for hemodialysis because the alternative form of peritoneal dialysis is almost non-existent.
We would like to appreciate Dr Rose Muhindo and Mr Nicholas Ssali together with the organizing committee, the leadership from Lira Regional Referral Hospital and the district led by Dr Nathan Onyachi. We appreciate our sponsors and all the other stakeholders that made this is event outstanding..
We provided medical reviews to over 200 patients living with CKD many of whom were seeing a Nephrologist for the first time.
Nephrologists are rare jewels in Uganda with only 15 serving a population of close to 46 million. Most of us (90percent) work in Kampala which is one of 135 districts in Uganda. It was indeed a great honor to have 9 of them in Lira along with a great team of nurses, social workers, biotechnologists, nutritionists, pharmacists, patients living with CKD and other doctors. It was truly a multidisciplinary team offering holistic care.
Why kidney status is essential?
We encourage you to know the status of your kidneys because 90 percent of people with kidney disease do not know that they have it.
