Case for a kidney bank

The kidneys are vital organs of the human body which need to be protected and looked after for good health and long life. Kidneys are beneficial and essential vital organs for the future and the health of a nation infested with poisonous/junk food, polluted water and a polluted environment. 

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is on the rise at an alarmingly high rate in Sri Lanka and worldwide. The kidneys are among the main precious organs in the human body making urine, removing excess water, controlling body chemicals, toxics and blood pressure, keeping bones healthy, helping maintain red blood corporals and controlling mineral and potassium on blood acidity and many other factors for a healthy life. The kidneys are as important as the heart. 

Due to the rapidity of the increase of kidney diseases, governments and non-governmental organisations have set up foundations and institutions. 10% of the world population is suffering from kidney-related diseases and 6% of the Asian population is diabetic with 1.5 million of the world population dying of diabetic-related diseases. 

Sri Lanka has four million diabetic patients out of a 22 million population when the world has 382 million diabetic patents, increasing at a rapid rate. NCP has 17.5 diabetic patients in the population and 300 deaths have occurred with 22,000 treated for CKD in one year. 

It is understood that there are over 100,000 kidney related patients in Sri Lanka currently adding 5,000 yearly on a very rough estimate. Diabetic related patients are on the rise in Sri Lanka and worldwide due to carelessness and absence of regulatory preventive procedures. 

CKD is a threat to India and worldwide due to a number of factors such as poisonous junk food, contaminated water, incorrect food/living patters and mis/over use of drugs being factors closer to the dangerous trend facing mankind on threats of diabetic related diseases leading to CKD. 

Kidney transplant is expensive and it is near impossible to find donors due to legal complications and factors beyond the control of the patients, donors and the administration. Few can afford the excessive and enormous expenditure and also meeting the stringent requirements. This has become a world epidemic which has led to corruption and reached the highest levels local and worldwide. 

Currently Sri Lanka is liberal on kidney donations which has been hampered due to adverse publicity on kidney rackets of Indian and other nationals/nations due to sheer need of the patients. The legal framework is not clear in India and Sri Lanka on the issue though transplants have taken place in both countries due to sheer need to save lives of loved ones. This is a human issue badly in need of a viable and quick solution as the death rate due to kidney-related diseases is on the rise.

Similar institutions worldwide

National Eye Bank: National Eye Bank (NIEBSL) in Sri Lanka established aiming to pay a significant in alleviating coronary blindness in Sri Lanka and throughout the world. It is a result of alliance between Sri Lanka and Singapore as a joint project situated at the Colombo Eye Hospital which is well established and reputed worldwide as a pioneer organisation initiated by a group of social workers led by late Dr. Hudson Perera and managed by a committee consisting of Minister of Health, Deputy Minister of Health, Director General of Health Services, Manager Singapore Eye Bank, Director National Eye Hospital, Manager National Eye Bank of Sri Lanka, Secretary Minister of Health, Project Director, and Chairman National Eye Centre which is a well-represented powerful body acting purely on voluntary basis with no profit motives in order to provide high quality, cost effective corneas for transplantation.

National Blood Bank in Sri Lanka: National Blood Transfusion Service collects 350,000 volumes of blood donation per year to the country with branches in provincial hospitals. First blood donation took place in 1921 which is running as a pride to the nation and as an example being the pioneer to the donation process and the first blood transfusion took place in 1959 during the death of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike’s tragic death which has aroused emotions of the common man. Today a network of centres are active countrywide.

Kidney Federation in India (KFI): This is set up to give life to the living individuals with the help of the donations of the healthy fellow human beings. The system will use the kidneys of the dying on brain death and accidents. There are allegations of corruption alleging ethical rackets by doctors and middle men with the help of private hospitals, which is inevitable due to the sentiments and sensational nature of the issue. In Sri Lanka Buddhist monks and relations could donate which has extended on humanitarian grounds. With the media exposure on the so-called “kidney racket” genuine donors and recipients are in trouble indicating the need for a kidney bank in Sri Lanka.

Organ Bank in the United Kingdom and USA: Organ Bank in the UK is well organised and systemised collecting organs from dying patients and accidental deaths. It is a system we can learn from.

Outcome of World Kidney Day deliberations

Sri Lanka 2050, which is a non-political and non-profitable group of intellectuals and professionals, organised a workshop/summer on World Kidney Day at the Professional Centre with professionals learned on the subject which resulted in the proposition to set up a kidney bank. 

Like the Eye Bank we too can get the support of Israel technology they are prepared to offer with the Government and professionals. Diplomatic channels should be made use of in this exercise with the professionals acting in parallel.

Way forward

This issue is to be addressed in two ways. Preventing spreading CKD is difficult due to different theories, and schools of thoughts on the cause of the epidemic fast-spreading. Common sense approach for the cause could be food habits. Water pollution, excessive use of poisonous chemicals in food, use of fertiliser and overuse of antibiotics in agro-industries could be main causes which are difficult to control due to excessive power of multinational companies. 

It is not only the small and developing countries that are affected. The entire world will suffer in a few decades due to the excessive use of antibiotics and CKD related diseases including diabetes with around 10% of the world affected including children. 

Drinking water is a main issue especially in rural areas. Contamination of water from sea water and poisonous fertiliser flows with running water are main sources of spreading cause to the nation. There are lectures, promises, and ‘tamashas’ by politicians with no vision or a strategy. It is time professionals come forward to avoid the danger facing the nation.

Another area to be considered is treatment including transplants and correct and organised medication. Kidney transplant is the last stage of treatment which is expensive and complicated. Sri Lanka has been successful in kidney transplants for over 2.5 decades, with a massive success rate attracting foreign patients arriving with donors that we would invite and encourage as this epidemic is spread worldwide. We need 1,000 dialysis centres but hospitals can provide only a few.

Action plan by professionals on 26 May at OPA

Sri Lanka 2050 has invited professionals, intellectuals, experts in the field and leaders in the legal profession worldwide to prepare a draft Act with the procedure in line with other foundations worldwide. 

World Kidney Day was celebrated by Sri Lanka 2050 on the topic ‘Towards a World Free From Chronic Kidney Disease’ with speakers including Professor Rohan Rajapaksa, Senior Professor on Agriculture Biology at Ruhuna University, Dr. Channa Jayasumana, Senior Lecturer and Head of Department of Pharmacology at the Medical Faulty Rajarata University, Dr. Ruwan Dahanayaka, Transplant Surgeon from the National Hospital, Dr. P.G. Mahipala, Director of Health Services, Dr. Lanka Dissanayake of the World Health Organization, Dr. B.A. Ratnapala, Traditional Ayurveda Consultant, and Professor Sheriff, Consultant Physician Nephrologist as moderator, sponsored by Dr. B.A. Ratnapala and Shamual Kinsburg from Israel, who has pledged to help set up the foundation. 

These invitees on World Kidney Day and many more world renowned international lawyers have pledged to support the cause and this is an opportunity to be a participant or a volunteer in the team in the formation and setting up of the Kidney Foundation. Let this be the invitation to likeminded Sri Lankans, the media and the public to participate.

(The writer is a former Ambassador to the UAE and Israel, Solicitor and Attorney-at-Law.)