Dialysis centres in Vietnam are facing overloading due to the rising number of people suffering from kidney problems.

The information was given by Associate Professor Nguyen Huu Dung, chairman of the Vietnam Dialysis Centre, at a meeting held at the Vietnam-Germany Hospital in Hanoi as part of marking World Kidney Day on March 9.

Dialysis centres in Vietnam are facing overloading due to the rising number of people suffering from kidney problems

According to Dung, around 800,000 kidney failure patients in Vietnam use dialysis treatment. Some 200 new patients with kidney failure have to undergo dialysis treatment every day.

Doctor Nguyen The Cuong, head of Vietnam-Germany Hospital's Nephrology and Dialysis Department, said that dialysis and kidney transplants were treatments for patients with end-stage renal disease.

Cuong added that kidney transplant helps patients to save on the costs of treatment. So the Ministry of Health needs to have policies to encourage kidney transplants, including kidney donations from people who are still alive and brain-dead cases.

Vietnam-Germany Hospital has conducted nearly 1,500 kidney transplants, including 157 from kidney donations by brain-dead people.

Associate Professor Nguyen Huu Dung warned that in the two first stages, kidney failure shows little in the way of symptoms, making it hard to diagnose, but from the third stage, the disease develops quickly, damaging patients’ health. He advised people to get periodic medical check-ups to detect health problems.