The Kenya Commercial Bank Foundation has launched a campaign against preventable non-communicable and lifestyle diseases that have become a leading cause of death in the country. The KCB Foundation over the weekend donated a dialysis machine valued at Sh1.9 million to the Nyanza Provincial General Hospital.

The donation forms part of the foundation long-term programme that seeks to ensure all provincial hospitals in the country have trained personnel and functional and equipped renal units.

The foundation chairperson Susan Omanga said the foundation has committed Sh15 million towards equipping government hospitals across the country with dialysis machines. This is  part of Sh400 million the foundation will spend on corporate activities.

“We are now working with Kenyatta National Hospital  where we donated three machines to their renal unit last year. Wwe have since realized that the main challenge for patients on dialysis is the limited access and high costs of treatment and high dependence on Kenyatta and that is why we want to spread the service across other hospital”, she said.

“The most affordable treatment is in government hospitals but only a few of them have dialysis machines,” she said. Health practitioners say that lifestyle diseases such as high blood pressure; heart diseases, diabetes and cancer are today the leading causes of death in Kenya.

The diseases also account for half of all hospital admissions. Every year, over 28,000 Kenyans are diagnosed with cancer while more than half of them die from lack of treatment due to high costs.

In Kenya over 10 percent of the general population are suffering from Kidney disease while only 13 dialysis are available across the country to cater for their medical needs. “The Foundation is investing in dialysis machines as part of the curative intervention for non-Communicable diseases thus ensuring accessible and affordable quality treatment and care to patients suffering from lifestyle diseases, as well as bringing treatment closer to patients and relieving them of their suffering”, said Omanga.

According to world health organization records, Kenya is the deaths associated with lifestyle clocked 3000 in 2011 bringing the country to position 77 in lifestyle disease incidents.

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