Health delivery system for renal disease care in bangladesh.

Bangladesh is one of the densely populated countries, a nation of 128 million people, 75% of whom lives in rural areas and the annual per capita gross national product (GNP) is US$ 380.00. The health care budget is 1.2% of GNP and the priority areas are population control, provision of clean drinking water and eradication of communicable diseases. The country has a small number of nephrologists and renal care is available in large cities only. The causes of renal diseases include glomerulonephritis, diabetes, hypertension, nephrolithiasis, obstructive uropathy and interstitial nephropathy. The incidence of end-stage renal disease is not known, but would be much higher than in developed countries because of high incidence of infection and environmental pollution. The treatment of ESRD has low priority in Bangladesh because of the government health policy and high cost of treatment. As a result, less than 10% of ESRD patients are able to maintain dialysis in private hospitals and governmental dialysis centers that are already overcrowded. The vast majority of patients who are started on dialysis die or stop treatment within the first three months. Renal transplantation is not as expensive as dialysis and is less costly in the university hospital than in private hospitals. Cyclosporine is usually replaced by azathioprine after six months of transplantation. Although organ act law is effective since 1998, cadaveric transplant has not picked up due to lack of infrastructure, facility and orientation regarding cadaveric transplantation. Preventive measures of renal disease can not be overemphasized.