Tell us about the Ethiopian Kidney Association in brief.
The EKA is a non-governmental, not-for-profit association. It is primarily working to create awareness about kidney and other related preventable diseases. It was established only recently and we had to register at the Ministry of Justice and recruit members who were concerned about kidney disease and professionals working on kidney and related diseases. For this and other reasons it took us some time to set up the association. The Kidney Association started by educating the public and giving basic screening for kidney and hypertension.

How many members do you have?
When we first established the association, we were about fifty people. Recently we have registered another fifty members. It is an open membership; whoever wants to be part of the association is very welcome.

What has the association accomplished so far?
So far, we are educating the public and participate with government on initiative related to diseases particularly kidney and high blood pressure. For starters, the individual feedback is good; however, it is difficult to gauge the general result. From our previous awareness-creating program, the examinations showed alarming rates of high blood pressure. It was these figures that forced the association to commemorate World Kidney Day in Ethiopia for the first time.

What can be the causes for kidney failure?
Poor loss of body fluid (diarrhea) and use of some toxic medicines are the major reasons behind acute kidney failure. Some people take medications that have a high probability of side effects. On the other hand, the cause for chronic kidney failure can be high blood pressure, diabetes or heredity kidney disorder. Acute renal failure means a kidney that does not function well. Most of the times it starts within a few weeks and patients recover almost totally if they receive rapid treatment. However, chronic renal failure is difficult to recover from. Patients lives can only be sustained with the aid of life-long dialysis or a kidney transplant.

What is the association doing to prevent this problem?
Educating the public before kidney failure occurs is the best thing we can do. We conduct various educational programs by collaborating with government and non-governmental schools and colleges; they are the perfect places where we can easily reach many people.

Do you think government should take this in to consideration?
Actually, the government has already considered it. The Ministry of Health has a program on communicable and non-communicable disease and under the non-communicable section, kidney failure, diabetes, cancer and others are considered chronic.

There has been report of organs, especially kidneys, being sold. Is there really a trade in kidneys?
It is highly illegal and very dangerous. I can safely say it does not exist in Ethiopia. Organ sale is more common in the Far East. Even the developed countries are against this practice. The human body is priceless. Of course there are people who sell their body organs but the main issue is that we need to raise the awareness of the public that the disease is treatable if detected early.

How well can a person live on just one kidney?
Quite well. It is possible to live a normal life. There is actually no difference between having one or both. The advantage is just to have a spare. If something goes wrong with one of the kidneys, the other will perform its function.

What can individuals do to prevent kidney problem?
There are three options. First and foremost, it is going to the nearest health center and testing for hypertension and other check-ups. Secondly, changing life-style is essential. It means doing exercises at least three days a week, avoiding salty foods and losing weight. The third key to prevent the disease is proper use of medicines. Patients who get treatment should follow the advice of experts rather than making their own decision.

Do you have links with international kidney organizations?
Yes, we have a good connection in terms of communication. We have commemorated March 8 as International Kidney Day bearing the global message, ‘Kidney disease is common, harmful and treatable.’ We are hoping to get the international support to carry on our objective of preventing and treating the disease. There is a growing epidemic of kidney related diseases. We do not have a national statistic that shows the exact data but we have done some mass screening tests that have rung warning bells.