How Kidney Disease Causes 20 Percent Deaths in Nigerian Hospitals - - Nephrologist

Ifeoma Ulasi of the Department of Nephrology, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, said about 20 per cent of deaths in Nigerian Hospitals were caused by kidney disease.

Ms. Ulasi said this during her 95th Inaugural Lecture at the University of Nigeria on Thursday in Enugu.

She said renal registry was very important because it was a place where information on chronic kidney disease could be available as practiced in the developed world.

"In this our environment, we do not have renal registry, it helps us keep document on epidemiology of chronic kidney disease.

"It makes information available to us, unfortunately we have not developed it.

"But in the Western world, it is available for easy retrieval of information on kidney disease and it helps doctors to get information on kidney disease," she said.

Ms. Ulasi said that about 50 per cent of patients did not know the cause of their kidney disease because they went to hospital late for treatment.

According to her, early detection of kidney disease will help to prevent it.

She said that hypertension was a cause and consequence of kidney disease, saying that as the disease got bad the hypertension increased.

She added that diabetes mellitus was a long cause of kidney disease, adding that people should be careful by going to hospitals to check themselves for prevention purposes.

Ms. Ulasi urged people to avoid smoking and taking un-prescribed painkiller drugs as they also contributed to kidney disease in human beings.

The Vice-Chancellor of UNN, Benjamin Ozumba, said that the Inaugural Lecture by Ms. Ulasi was a success, urging others to emulate Ulasi.

He congratulated Ms. Ulasi for her great contribution to the development of the university community and on her profession.

(NAN)