Kidney Disease Assumes Alarming Proportions In Odisha

Cuttack: Odisha is experiencing an alarming rise in kidney disease with the number of those affected increasing almost by 14 times in a span of seven years between 2011 and 2018.

According to the information available from the dialysis unit of the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, the number of patients afflicted with kidney disease went up to 14,076 in 2018 from 2,195 in 2011. Taking the average number of patients into account, about 1,485 undergo dialysis at the SCB every year. Besides, 10,154 patients are suffering from chronic kidney ailments.

While there are about 2.10 lakh kidney patients in the state, about 365-400 of them die every year, the data further revealed.

Talking to the media, Prof Chitta Ranjan Kar of SCB’s Department of Nephrology said most of the kidney patients are from Badamba and Narsinghpur areas in Cuttack district, Sukinda in Jajpur district, Manamunda in Boudh district, Dharmagarh in Kalahandi district and from different areas of Balangir, Sonepur, Nayagarh, Jharsuguda, Kandhamal and Malkangiri districts.

Kar said that people who do physical work in high temperature, come in contact with pesticides and other harmful chemicals, take excessive painkiller drugs, consume spurious liquor and contaminated water contract kidney disease.