13 Mar 2025

Chronic Kidney Diseases (CKDs) are estimated to affect approximately 850 million people worldwide, representing 13.5 per cent of the adult population.
When giving a keynote address at this year's commemoration of the World Kidney Day in Francistown yesterday, Minister of Health, Dr Stephen Modise thus urged Batswana to ensure early diagnosis of kidney diseases.
He said if left undetected, CKDs could progress to kidney failure, leading to severe complications and premature death.
This condition is projected to become the fifth leading cause of death, therefore Dr Modise highlighted the urgent need for global strategies to combat it.
Dr Modise further highlighted that over the past 10 years, Botswana had not been spared the rise in non-communicable diseases, especially hypertension and diabetes, which were the key drivers of CKDs.
He explained that this had resulted in an unprecedented rise in patients with CKDs who rapidly progressed to kidney failure, but if diagnosed early, CKDs could be treated so to delay progression and reduce complications as well as deaths. The minister also indicated that over 1 500 renal clients were seen every year at Prince Marina and Nyangabgwe referral hospitals and that this number was likely to rise with the burden of non-communicable diseases.
Of this, he said, many patients with CKDs would require some form of replacement with kidney therapy dialysis.
Dr Modise, however, explained that this number did not reflect the true picture in the country, given the country's collaborative plan with the private sector, whose numbers were not included.
He said over the years, the government had played an instrumental role in care for patients with CKDs requiring kidney replacement therapy, adding that before 2010, the only modality of dialysis in the country was peritoneal, with patients requiring this dialysis having to travel to South Africa to access care.
He explained that the first haemodialysis to open in Botswana was in Gaborone through public private partnership, paving way for more units in Gaborone, Francistown and Palapye.
Of recent, other units have opened in other parts of the country such as in Molepolole, Mahalapye, Kang and Maun.
Currently, there are more than 700 patients receiving kidney replacement therapy, the majority of whom are all haemodialysis.
Furthermore, he said government had established the organ transplant programme in 2014, which had since benefited 30 patients of differing ages.
All these operations, he explained, involved patients with kidney disease identifying a willing relative kidney donor with the operation done in India.
Earlier on, Ms Patricia Mogapi, who has been suffering from CKD for the past nine years, alleged that there was discrimination against people suffering from kidney disease, especially those looking for employment.
She said she suffered discrimination when she was looking for employment, suggesting that government should consider having a special office in all government institution to deal with such people.
Ms Mogapi said in the past, there had been some suggestions that people with CKDs would be placed under people living with disabilities category, but to no avail. ENDS