One in ten persons in Moldova, as well as worldwide, suffers from a kidney disease. The number of children affected by such diseases is on the rise. The data were presented in a news conference held at the Dialysis Center in Chisinau on the occasion of World Kidney Day. The Center was opened within a public-private partnership project for dialysis services. The authorities said that even if the hospital system has everything that is needed to ensure the diagnosis and treatment of kidney diseases, the patients do not come to see a doctor for prophylactic consultations on time, IPN reports.

Attending the event, Deputy Minister of Health Valentina Rotaru said the kidney diseases in children appear because of congenital malformations, hereditary diseases or urinary tract infections. “In newborns and during the first year of life, the clinical manifestations of the disease are nonspecific, but their early detection is decisive for preventing their deterioration into chronic renal insufficiency,” she stated.

Specialists warn that most of the kidney diseases can be prevented by leading a healthy lifestyle. Head of the Chisinau Public Health Center Luminita Suveica said that to prevent chronic kidney diseases, eating meat and salt in excess and processed products and cans should be avoided.

The Center’s medical director Petru Cepoida said the state of five of the six patients treated by dialysis at the Center improved during two months of its opening. “This was due to the higher quality of the consumables and last-generation equipment and to the complex treatment of acute and chronic complications of renal insufficiency,” he stated.

Statistics show that there were about 500 persons with terminal chronic renal insufficiency in Moldova last yearend. Of these, 200 already benefit from high-quality dialysis services at the Dialysis Center in Chisinau, which is one of the largest in Europe and has a capacity of about 400 patients.

World Kidney Day has been celebrated worldwide on March 10 for ten years.