‘Up to 750 cases of kidney failure diagnosed annually’

AMMAN — Around 700 to 750 new cases of kidney failure are diagnosed in Jordan every year, the Sisterhood Is Global Institute (SIGI) said on Monday. 

There are 641.5 cases of kidney failure for every 1 million residents in the Kingdom, SIGI said in a statement citing national records from 2014.  

The highest rate was recorded in Madaba (743 cases per 1 million people), followed by Amman (713.5 cases per 1 million people), Tafileh (706.6 cases per 1 million people) and Zarqa (634.5 cases for every million). 

Nationally, 4,282 Jordanians and 225 non-Jordanians suffered from kidney failure in 2014, of whom 40 per cent were women, SIGI said. 

Some 30.8 per cent of kidney failure cases were caused by diabetes, while high blood pressure caused 27.9 per cent of cases, SIGI said. 

Of those suffering from kidney failure, 39 per cent received treatment at public hospitals, 36.4 per cent at private hospitals, 21.4 per cent at Royal Medical Services (RMS) hospitals and 3.2 per cent at university hospitals, according to the institute. 

The “kidney patients fund” contributes to the treatment of 45.3 per cent of the patients through exemption, while 25.2 per cent have civil health insurance, 25.8 per cent have military insurance, 1.6 per cent have private insurance and 0.8 per cent have no insurance or other unknown types of insurance.

Jordan has 75 dialysis units distributed as follows: 46.7 per cent in the private sector, 41.3 per cent in the public sector, 9.3 per cent in RMS hospitals and 2.7 per cent at university hospitals.