Kidney screening in eastern Mahé districts a success, says Lions Club |21 May 2018

The Lions Club of Victoria has said that the free kidney screening exercise held recently in the Anse Aux Pins, Au Cap and Pointe Larue districts has surpassed all expectations.

Lions Club said 160 people took part in the exercise, an unexpected turn-out considering that time was a constraint.

The screening activity started at 8am and continued until 3pm although the initial closing time was set for 2pm. This was to cater for the number of people who were still turning up.

Following this exercise, it was found that some 25 people need further treatment for kidney, hypertension and blood pressure.

The kidney screening effort undertaken by Lions Club was highly appreciated by members of the public from the eastern Mahé districts.

“If these tests were to be done outside it would have been very expensive. At the same time it helps to understand complications in our body which can be cured timely and also avoid wastage of money for future treatments. It was a herculean task considering logistics, screening machines, cartridges and arranging team of doctors, nurses and medical staff to cope with the big turnout. In the end everyone worked tirelessly to satisfy everyone,” the Lions Club said in a statement.

The screening exercise was organised by the Lions of Seychelles (comprising Lions Club, Melvin Jones Foundation & Centennial Women’s Club), the Ministry of  Health and Airtel.

People aged 40 years and over were diagnosed with diabetes, hypertension, obesity and kidney disease.

To date, this brings a total number of 1860 patients that have been screened in four phases covering the Victoria, Anse Royale, Anse Etoile, La Digue, Praslin, Beau Vallon and Les Mamelles districts.

During the screening exercise, the participants took a urine test, followed by tests for blood pressure and blood sugar level. A blood sample was collected by the nurses which was then analysed in a machine giving results in two minutes.

The kidney screening exercise has been described as a preventive measure and awareness among the people on the state of their health.

“We are targeting mainly people of 40 years plus as they are the ones more at risk of these non-communicable diseases. But if someone below that age feels he/she is at risk and comes along for a test, we will not refuse them. But we are focusing on that age group because we encountered very long queues in previous programmes as there were people of all ages, hence the 40 years category,” said Dr Viveganand, the zone chairperson of Lions of Seychelles.

Three branches of Lions of Seychelles facilitated all procedures for the kidney screenings jointly organised with the Health Care Agency which provided the medical equipment to analyse the samples more quickly.

“We are planning to do these kidney screenings from now on as part of our calendar of events. We are going to do the screenings in all the districts,” said Sasi Kumar, president of Lions Club Seychelles.