THE Bacolod City Council approved a resolution requesting the City Health Office and the Department of Education-Bacolod, through the City Mayor’s Office, in coordination with the various barangays to strengthen the campaign on kidney health awareness among elementary and high school students and their families, highlighting the prevention of kidney diseases by promoting active lifestyle and healthy diet.
The resolution, authored by Councilor Bartolome Orola, stated that it is the policy of the State to protect and promote the right to health of the people and instill health consciousness among them.
Orola said that among the preventive measures that should be highlighted and emphasized to the public are living a healthy lifestyle, proper diet and exercise.
He said that according to various studies, kidney diseases are among the top leading cause of death among the Filipinos with new Filipino developing chronic renal failure every hour or about 120 Filipinos per million population per year.
Orola noted data from the Philippine Renal Disease Registry stated that since the year 2000, the number of new patients increases by about 15 percent every year and that the primary cause of renal or kidney disease is diabetes and hypertension, both of which are lifestyle diseases.
“It has been observed that many of patients requesting for medical assistance are kidney patients undergoing hemodialysis as early as in their 30s,” Orola said.
He said it is also medically established that most of the kidney diseases are chronic and develop in 10 to 15 years, thus, the importance of information on kidney health awareness and preventive measures should be disseminated to the public and given priority even as early as elementary and high school years of an individual, wherein the prevalence of too much sugar and salt intake are observed. (MAP)