Kids can also get kidney ailments, early treatment may be the saviour: Paediatricians
Telegraph | 18 March 2025
Children can also be vulnerable to kidney diseases and early onset of treatment can avoid dialysis or kidney transplant, or can at least delay them by many years, a group of paediatricians said.
Those who arrive late and need kidney transplant, often fail to get one because of the high cost and the absence of adequate paediatric kidney transplant facilities in Calcutta and eastern India.
Rajiv Sinha, a paediatric nephrologist of Institute of Child Health (ICH), said: “Very few people know that even children can have kidney diseases. Parents have to be more aware and understand that their children can have kidney ailments as well.”
“If the disease is detected and treatment starts early, then a dialysis or a kidney transplant can be avoided,” he added.
Sinha said some of the signs and symptoms of kidney disease in a child were recurrent infection of the urinary tract, frequent urination, very high volume of urination, more than usual thirst and multiple instances of involuntary urination at night.
“The child might be suffering from kidney ailments if he or she is not growing with time despite having no deficiency of Vitamin D, or if the child has anaemia but he or she has neither iron deficiency nor thalassemia,” he said.
Sinha said: “Families requiring kidney transplants for two or three-year-old children often do not find a solution because of the lack of healthcare facilities for children.”
At a press conference last week, Sinha spoke about a nine-year-old girl needing transplant. Her family income was less than ₹20,000.
The doctor said: “There are very few institutes in eastern India doing paediatric kidney transplants, and most of them are in the corporate sector. The cost of medicines post-transplant is around ₹8,000 a month. Even if the cost of transplant is arranged through donations and the family pays a part of the cost, how will they afford the post-transplant treatment? The mother is willing to donate her kidney for her daughter but financial constrains hold them back.”
“The community and the government have a role to play,” he said.
Apurba Ghosh, the executive director of ICH, said that the hospital was collaborating with the Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI) to do paediatric kidney transplants.
“We have plans to start paediatric kidney transplants in our hospital from 2027 or 2028, once our new building is ready and we have an operation theatre for conducting transplants,” said Ghosh.