Provincial Minister for Specialized Healthcare & Medical Education Kh. Salman Rafique has said that population explosion has resulted in the spate of diseases in the society. The government and the medical experts should jointly work to promote disease prevention program so that a healthy society could be formed by educating the masses about various safety measures. He maintained that setting up of Pakistan Kidney & Liver Transplantation and Research Institute is no less than a miracle. This institution will not only provide treatment and plantation facilities of liver and kidney diseases but will also emerge as a research based institution in coming years.
He expressed these views while addressing a seminar in a local hotel which held under the aegis of PKLI on the eve of World Kidney Day. He said that treatment facilities are being increased in the province for kidney patients and for that purpose, along with establishment of new institutions, the number of dialysis machines is also being increased. He said that body parts donation is gained from a living donor in Pakistan while cadaveric transplantation is being promoted in Spain and other countries. He informed that necessary legislation will be carried out about cadaveric transplantation in consultation with all the stakeholders and the support of international bodies will also be arranged so that after death donation of human parts could be promoted. He said that draft amendments in the laws of Punjab Human Organs Transplantation Authority has been prepared for ensuring easy availability of donation of kidney and liver in the province. It has been recommended to include close relatives of both maternal and paternal families of the patients for the purpose of human organs donations and necessary legislation will be done soon in this regard.
Various medical experts including Dr. Abdul Rauf Mazhar, Dr. Irfan Kundi, Dr. Imran Jamil and Dr. Aamir Yar Khan addressed the seminar and talked about the reasons of dis-functioning of kidneys as Pakistan is included in the list of countries where kidney-stone disease is very common. They also gave various proposals to remain safe from the kidney disease. Dr. Aamir Yar Khan said that one lakh and 50 thousand people needed dialysis while 100 dialysis machines are serving the 600 patients daily at PKLI.