By Winnie Osika
The cost of post-transplant care is a huge barrier to kidney transplantation and the few patients who have undergone transplant surgery and are not able to afford the after treatment have been forced to go back on dialysis due to their kidneys failing again.
Dr. Maranga Wambugu, a consultant physician and nephrologist says that many patients who are to undergo a kidney transplant turn down the procedure owing to the fact that they cannot afford the lifelong anti-rejection care.
“A huge chunk of the anti-rejection care involves the anti- rejection drugs which costs between Sh40, 000 and Sh50,000 a month, most of the patients after going through the transplantation counseling session, where we advise them on after transplant care, say they are not able to afford that treatment on a monthly basis”, said Dr. Wambugu.
He says that most patients who undergo kidney transplant are mostly covered by National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) which only pays for the transplant and not the post-transplant treatment. “We cannot deny the fact that NHIF covers almost half a million for the transplant fee but we are hoping that they can do more in terms of also covering the after treatment drugs which many cannot afford.”
Dr. Wambugu added that it is difficult to perform a kidney transplant to patients unable to afford the anti- rejection drugs because that means the patient’s kidneys will fail again, forcing them to go back on dialysis. Once one undergoes a kidney transplant, the aftercare treatment is normally a lifelong procedure since the body is acting on a strange organ that may bring about side effects.
He noted that worldwide, under the national health care, after treatment is covered in insurance, it includes the anti- rejection drugs because they understand that the transplanted patient is a much healthier patient compared to one who is always on dialysis. Despite the cost of kidney transplantation, Dr. Wambugu observed that another key barrier to this procedure is the limited number of donors.
