World Kidney Day 2024 celebrations

We joined the rest of the world to celebrate World Kidney Day 2024 in Uganda under our umbrella association, the Uganda Kidney Foundation (UKF). The activities were held at Lira Regional Referral Hospital in Lira City in Northern Uganda. Lira City was chosen this year because it houses the most recently opened public dialysis unit in Uganda and during these activities, the aim was to raise awareness of kidney diseases and the treatment options available in this region of Uganda.

A team of about 24 people ( nephrologists/physicians,  nurses, psycho-sociologists, technicians and nutritionists) set off from Kampala on 14th March at 00:00 am and headed for Lira which is about 340km north of Kampala. Upon arrival in Lira, 8 hours later, they held a scientific conference for the health workers and students from within Lira and neighboring places. Topics discussed focused on the epidemiology of Kidney disease in Uganda and its management plus advocacy for kidney disease care. The conference and all activities were officially flagged off by the Ugandan Minister of Health represented by the Lira Regional Hospital director Dr Onyachi Nathan who called upon the government to increase support for patients with kidney diseases by providing medications, improving access to dialysis and kidney transplant. 

On Day 2 (Mar 15, 2024), the whole team from UKF-Kampala joined the team of physicians in Lira to treat patients with kidney diseases and other chronic diseases, especially hypertension and diabetes mellitus. These patients had been screened for kidney diseases in the two months preceding this day and up to 170 individuals were treated during this exercise. these also included the 40 patients who are on chronic hemodialysis at Lira Hospital. The patients also received health education about nutrition and healthy lifestyle and free medications from our partner pharmaceutic companies that supported us on that day. This activity lasted a whole day. We thank everyone who made these activities a success