Scarcity’s Toll: Kidney failure patients grapple with donor drought

Srinagar Mar 13: With World Kidney Day celebrated on March 14 every year, the donor pool remains a significant challenge in India, especially in Jammu and Kashmir to save people from chronic kidney diseases.
Official data reveals that approximately 200,000 people suffer from kidney damage each year in India, with half of them reaching the end stage of kidney disease. Less than 10,000 individuals undergo kidney transplants, highlighting a significant scarcity in donors, where only one out of 20 patients manages to secure a donor. The same is true for Jammu and Kashmir.

Afrooza Bano, a resident of North Kashmir’s Baramulla, has been grappling with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) for the past two years and has been advised to undergo a kidney transplant.
“Finding a suitable donor is challenging, and the financial burden is beyond our means. As a shopkeeper, I am struggling to meet our basic needs, let alone contribute sufficiently to her treatment expenses,” her husband said.
The family faces financial constraints in affording the necessary treatment, which includes ongoing dialysis or a kidney transplant.
Dialysis involves using a machine to artificially eliminate waste and excess fluid from the blood. CDK is a condition wherein the kidneys gradually lose their capacity to filter waste and fluid, potentially resulting in severe complications like high blood pressure, anaemia, bone issues, and heart failure.
A doctor at SKIMS Soura highlighted the challenge of finding organ donors for kidney failure patients due to various factors, including blood and tissue mismatches.
“Dialysis serves as a temporary support while patients await a transplant. Diabetes and hypertension are prevalent causes of kidney disease in both genders, but women in J&K face higher incidences of conditions like urinary tract infections leading to kidney complications. In advanced stages of CKD, kidney replacement therapy becomes necessary, with transplantation offering superior health outcomes,” the doctor added.
Studies suggest that women undergoing dialysis may experience more complications, such as low blood counts and poor nutritional levels, compared to men.
Once a patient reaches advanced stages of CKD, kidney replacement therapy will be needed. Studies indicate that women tend to have more complications with dialysis than men; as an example, the incidence of low blood counts and poor nutritional levels seem to be higher.
According to the National Kidney Foundation, “10% of the population worldwide is affected by CKD and millions die each year because they do not have access to affordable treatment.