Online Desk: The number of kidney patients has increased alarmingly as 38 million people in the country are now somehow suffering from kidney disease, leading health experts said on Saturday.

Unhealthy lifestyle and lack of awareness lead to kidney ailment, they told a roundtable titled “Equal rights for kidney treatment of all and doings for achieving the goal” organised by Kidney Awareness Monitoring and Prevention Society (KAMPS), a non-profit voluntary organisation, a press release said.

Eminent Medicine Specialist ABM Abdullah, President of Kidney Foundation Prof Harun-or-Rashid and National Professor and Diabetics Association of Bangladesh AK Azad Khan, among others, addressed the roundtable with KAMPS Founder and President Prof Dr MA Samad in the chair.

Abdullah said there are 38 million kidney patients in the country and the number of patients with the disease is alarmingly increasing due to lack of awareness and inadequate health knowledge.

“We have to control high blood pressure and diabetics as well as avoid smoking for preventing kidney ailments,” he added.

Describing kidney ailment as a silent killer disease, Abdullah urged the people to check overweight and to have safe drinking water for keeping kidney healthy.

Dr Harun said in Bangladesh, nearly 50,000 kidney patients die every year because most patients suffering from the disease are not getting treatment facilities due to high treatment cost.

“We can save lives of kidney patients, if they are given dialysis treatment or kidney transplantation,” he said, adding both dialysis and kidney transplantation are too expensive.

Other health experts said the government should give special attention to expansion of kidney treatment facilities with a low cost so that poor people are able to take treatments.

The country has inadequate number of machines for kidney dialysis, they said adding the government, private organisations and affluent section of people should provide dialysis machines to make kidney treatment available for both rich and poor people.

They also advised the people for checking-up diabetes and blood pressure to avoid kidney ailments.

The health experts stressed the need for launching massive awareness campaign across the country on kidney disease for ensuring safe and healthy life.