DAVITA Kidney Care, a division of DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc., a leading independent provider of integrated health and kidney care services in Saudi Arabia, celebrated World Kidney Day on Thursday (March 10) across the Kingdom. Local communities were invited to participate in events to learn about the prevention of chronic kidney disease and the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle. Activities were held in six malls, in the cities of Jeddah, Riyadh, Al Ahsa, Buraidah, Abha, Al Majardah and Taif, areas where nearly 1,000 renal failure patients are already benefiting from DaVita's dialysis centers. Those who visited the malls were given the opportunity to have their blood pressure, sugar levels and weight checked by trained healthcare professionals, so they could be individually assessed on their specific risk factors for kidney disease. Those visiting the stands were also able to receive tailored advice from doctors and nutritionists on how best to minimize their risk of kidney disease through minor changes in their everyday lives. "DaVita is committed to raising the awareness of chronic kidney disease in Saudi Arabia," said Dr Abdulkareem Al Suwaida, DaVita chief medical officer in the Kingdom. "This is a disease that can be significantly reduced through simple changes to lifestyle and diet, and we recognize the importance of working with local communities to highlight the need for prevention." As part of its commitment to provide the Saudi population with the best possible resources to help prevent the onset of kidney disease, DaVita has recently developed an online risk assessment and recipe tool, which offers a range of kidney-friendly recipes that are easy to cook and use a mixture of ingredients to suit all appetites. According to the latest figures published by the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation (SCOT), the incidence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the Kingdom has been increasing in recent years, affecting more than 15,780 patients in 2014. In order to help bring best-in-class treatment and care to Saudi patients, the Ministry of Health awarded DaVita Kidney Care a contract in early 2014 to open and run approximately 75 new centers across the Kingdom by the end of 2018. DaVita has already opened eight kidney clinics across the Kingdom, offering cutting-edge technology and bringing world-class kidney care to isolated and hard to reach communities.
