SUKKUR: The Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) head Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi has warned that Sukkur, the third largest town of the province, has become a ‘red zone’ with regard to prevalence of kidney stone disease among children, mostly caused by consumption of contaminated water.

The Sukkur SIUT would now work round the clock to provide services to patients coming from the interior of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab who were suffering from kidney diseases, he said at a press conference at the SIUT on Sunday.

He said that a new building was being built in the SIUT at an estimated cost of Rs60 million by the name of Feroza Hashim Operation Complex and after its completion within three months, the hospital would be able to carry out more operations and expand other services.

He said that there were eight dialysis machines at the Sukkur SIUT which had now been increased to 18 while the number of OPD patients had risen to between 600 and 1,000. Two days in a week had been fixed for the OPD which included free checkup, laboratory tests and others facilities, he said.

He said that 90 per cent of the patients visiting the SIUT were patients of kidney disease. “We all will have to play a role to create awareness among the masses about the kidney diseases and help check their spread,” he said.

He said that most people were hesitant to come forward for treatment despite having known about the disease which was dangerous as it could lead to complications at later stages.

Dr Rizvi said that 1,000 patients were registered at SIUT for dialysis and 90 were being put on dialysis machines on a daily basis.

Sounding a note of concern, he said that number of patients suffering from kidney diseases was increasing day by day. Kidney and diabetes patients were required to take great care of their diets, especially women should take preventive measures and keep sugar under control and take extra care of diet during pregnancy, he said.

Among the major reasons behind kidney diseases were; diabetes, consumption of contaminated water, use of pain killers and carelessness, he said.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2015