HEALTH Minister Horace Dalley last Friday assembled a committee to review recommendations by senior health officials on how the ministry can best assist dozens of kidney patients who cannot readily access dialysis treatment.

The committee, which was formed following a meeting called by Dalley to discuss the issue of kidney disease and treatment at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, was given one month to complete its assessment.

Among the recommendations put forward by the officials are the expansion of the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) Dialysis Unit and the creation of a dialysis unit in Central Jamaica.

At present, there are only 10 dialysis units islandwide – six in Kingston, two in St James and the remaining two in Manchester. Meanwhile, the number of dialysis stations in public hospital amounts to over 40 with another 20 privately owned.

But according to professor of medicine and nephrology at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Dr Everard Barton, the number of people suffering from renal disease in Jamaica has reached disturbing proportions, with a prevalence rate of 327 per million people.

“Only a third of these patients receive dialysis treatment… [and] only 1.8 per cent of these patients get transplants,” Professor Barton pointed out.

He said the disease is more common among men who account for 57 per cent of all kidney patients. The main cause of renal failure in Jamaica is said to be hypertension followed by diabetes.

In terms of the geographical distribution of the disease, Kingston and St Andrew has the highest number of cases followed by St Catherine.

But the professor also painted a grim image of the plight of children below the age of 12 suffering from renal failure and called for facilities to be put in place to deal with the problem.

He said between 1985 and 2000, the average number of children who suffered from renal failure was 3.2 per million.

“Fifty per cent suffered from chronic inflation of the kidneys with 40.2 per cent due to other problems such as congenital,” he said, adding that a half of the children seen by paediatricians are already in the advanced stage.

“Forty-five per cent of them die before the age of 12 and only eight per cent access dialysis,” he said. “The mortality rate is quite high.”

Last year approximately 400 patients were dialysed, 15 of whom received long-term peritoneal dialysis – a method of dialysis where fluids are pumped into the abdomen resulting in the removal of waste from the blood.

On Friday he disclosed that a Caribbean Renal Data Registry was being created to document kidney disease cases across the region.

“We have data from Bahamas, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Tobago and Jamaica,” he said. “Belize is expected to send its data soon.”