Media
Release 30 September
2009
Kidney Failure Increasing at
Alarming Rate - New Figures
Released
.......
This equates to almost 7 new patients requiring dialysis
or transplantation each and every day of the
year.
Kidney
Health Australia today said new figures released this
week by the Australian and New Zealand Dialysis &
Transplant Registry show that the burden of kidney
failure on the Australian community continues to
escalate at an alarming rate.
Dr.
Tim Mathew, Medical Director of Kidney Health Australia
said in the 12 months
to December 31 2008, 2476 new patients were accepted
onto end-stage treatment programs -a 7.1% increase
compared to the previous
year.
This equates
to almost 7 new patients requiring dialysis or
transplantation each and every day of the
year.
"The number of people actually
dialysing on December 31, 2008 was 10,062 - a 6.3%
increase on the previous year. At an estimated
average annual cost of $65K per patient this
represents an additional
cost to the Health budget of about $27.3
million/year compared to the end of
2007.
"The contribution of diabetes in
causing kidney failure was the highest on record with
841/2462 (34%) new patients having diabetic kidney
disease compared with 31% the previous
year.
"A record 813 kidney
transplant operations were performed in 2008 (an
increase of 132% on the 615 transplants in 2007).
"This remarkable increase occurred from a
131% increase in live donor transplants (271 transplant
operations in 2007 rising to 354 in 2008) and a 133%
increase in kidney transplants from deceased donors (344
transplant operations in 2007 rising to 459 in
2008)."
Dr Mathew said this increase
in deceased donor kidneys was the outcome of the
significant rise in organ donors that occurred last
year.
"Despite this increase only 8% of
patients on dialysis in 2008 were able to have a kidney
transplant in that
year."
Media Enquiries:
Dr Tim Mathew, Medical
Director Kidney Health Australia Mobile: 0416 149
863
Ron Smith National Communications Manager Kidney
Health Australia
