Dire cry for children with kidney diseases

Children with kidney diseases in Jamaica face a “dire situation” as there are no established facilities – public or private - to treat them.

Those with chronic renal failure are likely to die waiting, said consultant paediatrician and paediatric nephrologist Dr Maolynne Miller at a Gleaner Editor’s Forum today.

“We are treating patients with adults at the University Hospital of The West Indies, and when we treat one child, we bump off an adult who may be in similar straits,” she said.

The nephrologist is sending out an urgent plea for help to develop facilities to treat children before the onset of en-stage renal failure.

While undesirable, this is the best Miller and her team can do to keep over 40 young patients diagnosed with chronic renal failure alive and well.

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