Over 1 million children have kidney problems

More than one million Filipino children examined by the National Kidney Transplant Institute (NKTI), showed urine results with a high probability of kidney disease in future.

This was recently revealed by Dr Remedio De Belen-Uriarte, Renal Disease Control Programme Officer. She said out of the total 5.758 million Filipino children screened nationwide, 23.97 per cent or 1.38 million showed abnormal urine results.

Topping the list was the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with 43,788 out of 128,021 or 34.20 per cent of the school children, while Region III was the second area with the highest urine abnormality results pegged at 124,392 or 28.64 per cent of the 434,377, who underwent screening.

Dr Antonio Paraiso, the NKTI Consultant said, Public School children in the province of the Cordilleras belong to a 'special risk' group of kids, with high incidence of abnormal urine result. Paraiso said they need more attention because urine test results showed, Cordillera kids ranked third among the 14 regions in terms of children with abnormal urine results.

The NKTI records showed that 28.51 per cent or an equivalent number of 39,915 were tested with abnormal urine result out of the total 140,008 public school children, who participated in urine screening. Paraiso, a nephrologist, admitted that the NKTI had a low rate of follow-up of these children because parents were not responsive to follow-up treatment.

"They are psychologically unprepared to participate," he said because based on referrals they received from 1994-1997, they had difficulty locating school children who were earlier screened and included in the study.