World Kidney Day 2012 - Diaverum actively engaged around the globe

Munich / Lund, 8 March 2012 - Diaverum, one of the world’s leading renal care service providers, is taking an active role in today’s World Kidney day.  Through activities such as open door days at dialysis clinics, free kidney screening and blood pressure tests, Diaverum is increasing awareness for renal diseases and informing about possible prevention measures.

The 2012 campaign of World Kidney Day (www.worldkidneyday.org), called “Donate - Kidneys for Life – Receive”, is focusing on the positive outcome of kidney transplantation and the life-saving aspect of organ donation. Commenting on the theme, Dag Andersson, CEO and President of Diaverum, said that “we are experiencing every day how dialysis patients are desperately waiting to receive a kidney transplant. Unfortunately, only a fraction of all patients with end stage renal disease can get a transplant – for either medical reasons or because there are just not enough organ donations. We thus very much endorse this year’s World Kidney Day theme aimed at getting more people to commit to organ donation.”

Transplant Centre in Argentina

Diaverum has broad knowledge of the challenges and chances of kidney transplantation. The renal care provider is running a transplant centre in Buenos Aires, Argentina. “More than 2,000 kidneys have been transplanted here. That means 2,000 chances for a better life for our renal patients. The more kidneys are being donated, the more people can dramatically improve their quality of life,” stated Juan Irigoin, Regional Director Diaverum Latin America, underlining the importance of this year’s World Kidney Day theme.
In order to secure and enable more high quality transplants, Diaverum is currently looking into opening another transplant centre in Eastern Europe.

Preventive care around the globe

In many of the 250 Diaverum dialysis clinics, there are activities around prevention of renal diseases taking place during World Kidney Day. “As in the years before, our World Kidney Day activities this year show that Diaverum really has ‘the Touch that makes the difference’ – both when it comes to actively engaging with our patients, but also regarding reaching out to the public to inform about renal diseases and how to prevent these,” said Dag Andersson. “We consider preventive care immensely important and we plan to further increase our activities in this area.”
Diaverum is operating nephrology wards in several countries and looking into developing preventive care measures. Many prevention activities at World Kidney Day are directed at identifying and minimising diabetes and hypertension, the most important risk factors for chronic kidney disease.