Sarmiento: ESRD increasing in PH

Dr. Francisco E. Sarmiento III, program manager of Philippine Organ Donation and Transplantation Program (PODTP) and Philippine Network for Organ Sharing (PhilNOS), gave a lecture about organ transplantation in the Philippines.

In his lecture, Sarmiento presented medical profiles of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) which is the reason transplantation and dialysis needs to be performed in order to improve or prolong the quality of life of a particular individual.

Sarmiento said that ESRD occurs when the preventive phase fails for a particular person. He stated ESRD is a lifestyle-related disease or caused by other multiple factors.

According to a 2015 consensus, region 7 has a population of 4.41 million, which accounts for 4.4 percent of the Philippine population of 2015. Dumaguete City was ranked 6^th most populous in the country.

Sarmiento emphasized an increasing trend in ESRD from 2001 to 2014.

“This shows that the disease has been steadily increasing and has tripled since 2001 at around 5,000 cases nationwide, documented cases, at around 16,000 in 2014,” Sarmiento said.

He said that Region 7 has few dialysis center as of 2014 as compared to the National Capital Region (NCR) and other regions in Luzon.

“It just shows that the disease has to be addressed by providing more aspects to health facilities and this particular data shows that the ESRD needs to be addressed strongly here in region 7,” Sarmiento said.

According to Sarmiento, the number of transplant surgeons and nephrologists per region in 2014 shows that in region 7, there is only two transplant surgeons and three nephrologists.

As of Dec. 14, the Department of Health (DOH) has accredited around 29 kidney transplant centers all over the country.

Sarmiento said that there is an intense requirement for renal disease intervention.

“The main reason the focus is on kidneys is because End Stage Renal Disease is more prevalent in the country as compared to other solid organ end stage diseases such as the diseases of the liver,” he said.

Sarmiento said that in 2010, DOH has created PODTP to address issues and concerns regarding living donations and PhilNOS focuses on disease donor issues.