A patient with kidney failure is treated at Hanoi’s Viet Duc Hospital (Photo: nld.com.vn)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – The number of people
suffering from kidney problems was increasing in Vietnam, and kidney
failure had begun to harm more and more young people, doctors have said.
A 19-year-old female patient from central Nghe An province
has been undergoing dialysis for five years.
Her relatives said she started feeling tired and losing weight when
she was in 9th grade.
One day, she fainted in class and was hospitalised. Her
family was shocked when the doctors said she would have to undergo dialysis for
the rest of her life, Nguoi Lao Dong (The Labourer) newspaper
reported.
Recently, she was taken to in Hanoi for a checkup because she
had been suffering from a fever for several days.
The doctor said she needed a because she
had a large tumour.
In recent years the number of cases of kidney
failure has been increasing among young people, and has been complicated
by metabolic diseases such as diabetes and gout.
Obesity can also damage kidney function before diabetes
and hypertension develop.
These two diseases have negative effects on the kidney and
are the main cause of kidney disease, so the prevention of diabetes and
hypertension is very important, doctors said.
Doctor Nguyen Huu Dung, head of the Department of Artificial
Nephrology at Bach Mai Hospital, said the hospital
regularly admitted young patients aged from 24.
Even students have been treated for haemodialysis in recent years.
Most patients only go to hospital for a check-up when
things get bad, but by that point they are at end-stage chronic kidney
failure.
Many people still think that diabetes and high blood pressure
only attack the elderly, but in fact these two diseases are increasing
among young people aged 24-25, according to Dr Nguyen The Cuong, head of
the Nephrology and Dialysis Department at Viet Duc Hospital.
It is estimated there are five million people suffering from kidney
disease in Vietnam, and there are more than 8,000 new cases every year.
The number of patients with end-stage renal failure requiring dialysis is about
800,000.
The hospital’s Kidney Dialysis Department alone is treating
more than 700 patients following their kidney transplants.
One of the causes we often encounter
is people using herbal medicine voluntarily which affects
kidney function.
Many people suffered kidney failure due to arbitrary drug use
and the habit of eating salty food, doctors said.
“The alarming fact we have to face is that many
patients are hospitalised in serious conditions. But instead of going to a
medical facility for treatment, patients use drugs after searching for a
cure on the internet,” Dr Cuong said.
To prevent kidney failure, it is necessary to drink enough
water every day and have a reasonable diet.
People also need to reduce salt intake – a factor that
promotes high blood pressure and other metabolic diseases, according to doctors.
Chronic cannot be cured, but treatment
could help slow disease progression, improve symptoms and limit
complications, they said.
“It is important to detect the disease early in
high-risk groups, especially people with and hypertension or with
family histories of kidney disease. These people need to have
periodic tests every year so we can actively treat them early to avoid
progression of kidney disease,” Dr Dung recommended.
Source: VietnamPlus
