Sa'ran, head of the Prince Salman Center for Kidney Diseases, has said that no patients with HIV/AIDS were currently being treated at the center, but that some facilities were allocated for them at kidney centers. Al-Sa'ran was speaking this week at the launch of the center's kidney disease awareness campaign in the presence of Abdullah Al-Dogathir, executive director of Prince Fahd Bin Salman Charitable Society for the Care of Kidney Failure Patients. The campaign, organized under the theme, “Keep Your Blood Pressure Down”, was launched with presentations from the departments of curative nutrition, nursing, health education, social services and mental health. School pupils of all ages were examined for kidney diseases as part of a campaign to encourage early diagnosis and to chart the extent of kidney problems in the young. Al-Sa'ran said there was a high ratio of hepatitis transmission among kidney failure patients due to renal dialysis, reaching almost 50 percent for the C virus. He said that advanced kidney centers, including public ones here in the Kingdom, need to take measures to prevent transmission, such as designated wards for B and C viruses. Hepatitis treatment, Al-Sa'ran added, now has a success rate of 70 percent.
