Chennai: Of many diseases, kidney affected patients should be more careful during the coronavirus outbreak as they have less immunity. They should take medicines regularly and should not skip them, says noted nephrologist Dr Soundararajan.
Speaking to News Today, he said, ‘Dialysis and transplant patients are at more risk by getting infected. Elderly patients’ health should be monitored. Self isolation is best thing to be safe and moreover it would be better for patients not go out of house during the present crisis.’
‘In India alone, there are around 1.50 crore dailysis going on annually. In Tamilnadu, it would be somewhere 12,000 and Chennai between 4,000 and 5,000. These patients should not miss the dailysis at any cost now. If they miss it would lead to other complications,’ the nephrologist, husband of Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, said.
On being healthy, he said, kidney affected patients should eat nutrituos food, green vegetables, fruits and drink milk. Apart for it, they should take medicines, he says.
Meawhile, TANKER Foundation which is into the service of the underprivileged with kidney ailments for the last 26 years, said its eight dailysis units are working so that they would continue to do life-saving process for their 572 patients who are dependent on dialysis to stay alive.
Asked about the patients mobility, TANKER Foundation managing trustee Latha A Kumaraswami said, ‘Most of them come in the own or arranged vehicles and one or two patients depend on the government ambulance. We have given ID cards to dialysis patients stating that they are on live saving treatment and to our staff, so that they are not put to harship during vehicle restrictions.’
In her plea to the governemnt, Latha said, ‘The government should arrange for more dailysis equipment for patients and see that the medicines are available to them. One of the transplant patients from an outstation called me and said he is finding it difficult to come to Chennai and get medicine due to Covid-19 restriction’.
It may be noted that almost 2.5 lakh people die of kidney failure in India every year. It is the third largest killer after malignancy and heart disease.