New dialysis centers will appear in 2009 in seven cities of Belarus

March 17, Minsk /Olga Shelegovich - BELTA/. New dialysis centers will appear in 2009 in seven cities of the republic - Brest, Berezа, Lepel, Nesvizh, Postavy, Volkovysk and Minsk. This was announced today by the chief freelance specialist in nephrology and renal replacement therapy of the Ministry of Health, head of the Republican Center for Nephrology and Renal Replacement Therapy Oleg Kalachik at the republican meeting on the results of the Belarusian nephrology service for 2008, according to a BELTA correspondent. The first of them will open in Volkovysk within the next two weeks. Today, each region in Belarus has 4-5 dialysis departments - a total of 29 across the republic. Over the past 17 years, the number of dialysis places in departments has increased significantly - from 79 in 1991 to 261 in 2008. "In the future, we must maintain this dynamic, as the overall provision of dialysis therapy in Belarus still lags behind the best European indicators," said Oleg Kalachik. Speaking about dialysis, the specialist identified one important problem - the high infection rate of hepatitis among dialysis patients in Belarus. True, if in 2006, 50% of dialysis patients were infected with viral hepatitis B and C, then in 2008, the overall infection rate was reduced to 30%. And the infection rate of dialysis patients with hepatitis C is below the European average - 13.9% of the total number of patients (in Italy - about 15%). But the situation with viral hepatitis B somewhat spoils the picture. "The priority task is to prevent the emergence of new infections; we must not forget about vaccinating patients who undergo dialysis," said Oleg Kalachik. He added that last year 173 people died on dialysis, with a mortality rate of 8.2%. In principle, it is lower than the European indicator, which is 15-20%. But the fact is that the average age of dialysis patients is significantly lower than the average age of dialysis patients in Europe: in Belarus, it is about 50 years, while abroad it is close to 70. In addition to the appearance of new dialysis departments and centers, Belarus plans to expand the network of nephrology offices, Oleg Kalachik noted. Today, 17 such offices operate in the republic instead of the 25 required by the standard, and their staffing level is 67%. The specialist said that this year, 2 nephrology offices are expected to open in the Grodno region, where only one such office operates today. Molodechno will also open its own nephrology office, as well as a hemodialysis department in Nesvizh. -0-