DAMMAM: The government has had to increase the number of treatment centers and hemodialysis machines because of the alarming increase in the number of renal failure patients in the country, according to Dr. Tareq Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Salem, Director of the Health Affairs Directorate in the Eastern Province. He said statistics issued by the Saudi National Center for the Transplantation of Organs has shown that there are 11,000 patients suffering from renal failure in the Kingdom. This has necessitated an increase in the number of hemodialysis centers to 190, including 4,700 hemodialysis machines. The increase in the number of cases has resulted in the Ministry of Health launching a massive public awareness campaign on kidney disease, its symptoms and complications. He said that “prevention is better than cure”. Al-Salem revealed the statistics in an address to the inaugural session of a symposium on kidney diseases Wednesday in Dammam, in collaboration with the National Center for the Transplantation of Organs. The symposium is taking place to coincide with World Kidney Day which took place on March 10.
