Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said at the 18th Annual Dialysis Conference in Selangor on Oct 11 that chronic kidney disease remains as one of the major “silent health crises” in Malaysia with more than five million Malaysians or 15% of the population living with the disease.
Dr Dzulkefly said while prioritising the peritoneal dialysis (PD) policy, the ministry would ramp up more awareness programmes to educate the people and make screenings more available to anyone who might have contracted with the disease.
00:00Let me begin by saying my Assalamualaikum, Salam Sejahtera, Salam Malaysia Madani.
00:10I'm truly, truly very delighted and honored to be with all of you here for the 18th Annual Dialysis Conference.
00:21Chronic kidney disease, CKD, is one of the greatest health challenges of our generation.
00:28More than 5 million Malaysians are now living with CKD.
00:33Yet only 5% know that they have it.
00:38That is even more alarming to me than to the king.
00:41Every day, 28 Malaysians are diagnosed with kidney failure and begin diarsis.
00:50As of today, and if we do not do much, in 2040, there will be around 106,000 Malaysians who require dialysis at the Zaki.
01:07So this is all making it more pressing and alarming because there is a financial cause to treating CKDs.
01:19And it's huge, as I've mentioned in my speech, we are already costing a toll of RM3.3 billion annually.
01:29For the many that we would dialyze, other than going to dialysis, whether it's HD or PD, the cost is climbing.
01:39And the current challenges is diabetes and high blood pressure remain the leading causes of kidney failure.
01:46Then what is worse is that when they are screened, they don't come immediately into treatment.
01:50It is even worse, yeah.
01:51So screening is only as good as you get into treatment, yeah.
01:55Heavy dependence on hemodialysis, we want to move PD first policy, it's my policy now, so we will move in that direction.
02:06Of course, transplantation will be the best because that is truly curative, yeah.
02:11Treatment of failures or end-stage renal diseases of the kidney is treatment, sustainability, PD first policy.
02:17Then, of course, improving the gap between town and rural areas, remote areas.
02:27And then most importantly is collaboration with NGOs like NKF, yeah.
02:31Because as I've stated earlier, Malaysia seems to be getting somewhere near the old ECD's countries by way of performance in CKD's treatment because we are partnering strategically with NGOs like NKF, yeah.
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