JEDDAH — The third annual nephrology conference began at the Jeddah Hilton Hotel on Monday with its focus on kidney diseases and transplants.
On the opening day of the four-day conference, Dr. Saeed Al-Ghamdi, head of the organizing committee and head of the internal medicine department and kidney center at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, said there are 8,400 cases of terminal kidney failure in the Kingdom.
The number increases by 100 to 120 new cases annually for every million citizens. Thus, there will be 2,000 cases that require dialysis but there are not enough dialysis centers for these patients.
The biggest obstacle that the Saudi Society of Nephrology faces is the difficulty in convincing Saudis to donate their dead relatives’ organs in spite of fatwas that have approved organ donation, according to Al-Ghamdi.
According to Al-Ghamdi, there are many causes for kidney failure, but in 40 percent of the cases, diabetes is the villain. Kidney failure progresses into anemia in 90 percent of affected people. The kidneys fail to produce the erythropotein hormone that is responsible for stimulating red blood cell production.
The conference’s organizing committee honored seven kidney donors — six of them women — with the King Abdul Aziz Shield. Three of them donated kidneys to their fathers, two to their husbands and one to her mother. “Women beat men in this field. They are always eager to help,” said Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Salman, general supervisor of the Prince Fahd ibn Salman Charity Society.
