MP Akram al-Shaer on Monday called for establishing a "supreme health council" to improve medical services in the country, especially those for kidney failure. In Monday's session, Shaer, who chairs the Peoples Assembly's Health Committee, said that the proposed council will act as a national body for designing a nationwide health program. He added that the country lacks a unified health policy and the council would allocate resources to fight disease in the country. Experts say that Egypt has failed to combat illnesses associated with poverty, such as kidney problems that require renal dialysis. Shaer, a senior member of the Freedom and Justice Party, said 44,000 Egyptian citizens require renal dialysis which, according to Shaer, represents “two percent of patients in Egypt." Shaer went on to explain that chronic renal failure is treated either by hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis or renal transplant. Shaer called on the PA to fight for the Egyptian people's right to survive kidney failure, and to provide peritoneal dialysis that protects against the transmission of infectious diseases such as Hepatitis C. "Thank God, our Lord gave us kidneys that operate 24 hours a day, but the ill person has a kidney that only operates for 12 hours if he receives hemodialysis,” he said. “The Egyptian people deserve to receive peritoneal dialysis for the treatment of patients suffering from renal failure."
