A multilingual online educational resource for kidney patients to combat COVID-19, Know Corona to Defeat Corona was released online by Dr Sanjeev Gulati, Director, Nephrology and Kidney Transplant, Fortis Hospital Vasant Kunj and Dr Sanjay Pandya, Nephrologist and Chief Mentor, Kidney Education Foundation, Rajkot. Excerpts from an interview with Dr Sanjeev Gulati:
Tell us about your research.
I am a member of governing body of Indian Society of Nephrology and COVID19 task force of the Indian Society of Nephrology. While trying to educate the doctors about different aspects of coronavirus and kidneys, I realised that unless we educate the patients of kidney disease or their attendants, our efforts will not succeed. I have extensively researched information available on risks of coronavirus for kidney patients, and presented it in as a simple and easily understandable manner in collaboration with my fellow doctors from the country as well as all over the world.
What are the specific risks to kidney patients and how can they address the issues due to COVID-19?
The prevalence of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) in general population is about 10-15 per cent. There is data that the mortality in patients with CKD is 2.5 times higher. Hence, if we must prevent deaths then we must focus on CKD patients. Also, studies from Spain have shown that kidney transplant patients have a very bad time with 25 per cent mortality. Once these patients read this information they will be able to protect themselves.
What led you to create this resource?
There is no vaccine or treatment to prevent coronavirus, and prevention is the best possible answer. The only way to prevent COVID 19 is to empower people all over the world in their native tongue with knowledge and self-learning, as knowledge is the true power. Unless we empower people, no amount of preaching or lockdown will succeed. This lead me to create the resource.
What does it entail?
The kidney education website is the world’s largest multilingual website. For the prevention and care of kidney diseases, and there is a free download of a 200-page kidney book in 37 languages. Hence, we used this platform. Know Corona to Defeat Corona provides information about coronavirus for kidney patients in 20 Indian and international languages. All this is free of cost.