KIDNEY WEEK on World Kidney Day

Ludhiana, March 23, 2013: A "Kidney Week" was organised in Christian Medical College, Ludhiana.

Activities during the week centered around improving awareness and early detection of kidney disease particularly with an emphasis on the theme "Stop Kidney Injury"

Kidney Health OPD with Nephrology consultation, Diet counseling and Health education was organised in the Nephrology Department attended by about 100 patients.
A street play was performed by Nursing Students of Nursing College was performed to create awareness of Kidney Disease and common causes of kidney disease and their prevention. The play was well attended and appreciated by patients and relatives.

A poster designing competition on the theme "Kidneys for Life" was performed. There were 30 entries for the poster competition and three prize winning entries were selected with Madhu, Susannahand and Ekta  as winners.
A renal quiz was conducted by Dr. Pratish George with 29 teams competing for five slots for the finals which featured seven rounds of “Kidney Gyan.” The team “Renal Stones” comprising Dr. Ashu Mathai, Dr. Sebastian Marker and George Koshy were winners. The Nursing Quiz had 20 nurses competing for 3 prizes with Drisya Kuriakose and Manpreet Kaur as joint winners and Jennifer Gill as second.

The "Kidneywala" an awareness play was enacted by MBBS Students focussed on organ traffic and the ethical problem posed by this illegal organ donation in our society was screened.

On 14th March a Continuing Medical Education on “Acute Kidney Injury - Stop Kidney Attack” was held featuring three of the city's Nephrologists Dr. Jasmin Das, Dr. JS Sandhu and Dr. Timothy Rajamanickam with talks on Acute Kidney Injury, it’s diagnosis, prevention and importance of early and effective management. The meet was chaired by senior specialists Dr. GL Avasthi and Dr. NS Khaira. Dr. KL Dhar who was instrumental in initiating kidney care and setting up the Nephrology Department in CMCH was the chief guest and spoke on the need for early diagnosis and preventing kidney disease particularly with common use of pain killers. He also congratulated the institution on recognising the importance of Nephrology earlier and developing the specialty in Punjab. Dr. Abraham G Thomas the Director of CMCH spoke on the rich tradition of CMC in pioneering kidney care since the 1960’s with many firsts including doing peritoneal dialysis, hemodialysis and kidney transplantation for the first time in Punjab.
The kidney week culminated with a thanksgiving chapel service for 25 years of kidney care and service of the Nephrology Department in CMC.

The Kidney Week campaign was submitted in a competition by the Global Kidney Academy online forum and was selected a one of the three best campaigns for World Kidney Day worldwide. The Director of GKA OLM, Prof. El Nahas commended the campaign “for organising activities throughout the whole week and engaging nurses and paramedical staff as well as patients in the celebration.” Kidney disease in India is increasing and an improved awareness, early detection and management under Nephrologists will go a long way in reducing unfavorable outcomes of kidney disease in future. If you have high blood sugar, blood pressure or a family disease of these and kidney disease please consult a nephrologist for further advice and help.