Chennai Corporation plans to open eight more free dialysis centres, said Dr P Kuganathan, chief city health officer while speaking at the world kidney day awareness event at Sri Ramachandra Hospital in the city.

The efforts of Chennai Corporation in screening and treating children living in slums for scabies a few years ago helped in almost eliminating scabies in them.  This has been a major effort in preventing kidney disease as untreated scabies can lead to kidney problems, he added.

Dr P Soundararajan, HOD, nephrology, Sri Ramachandra University said the medical college hospital provides all nephrology and urology treatments including kidney transplants to poor patients.

Two ladies who donated their kidneys to their relatives were honoured in the function.

Dr  Lalathaksha Kumbhar, Interventional Nephrologists from Detroit, USA conducted a ten-day hands-on training to nephrologists from several parts of India on the latest techniques in dialysis on behalf of the International Society of Nephrologists.