International nephrological assistance to Kosovo refugees

On behalf of the European Branch of the TaskForce.

Norbert Lameire, Chairman of the ISN Commission on ARF.

Dienst voor Inwendige Ziekten, Universitair Ziekenhuis, de Pintelaan 185, Gent, Belgium

Correspondence and offprint requests to: Prof. N. Lameire, Dienst voor Inwendige Ziekten, Universitair Ziekenhuis, de Pintelaan 185, B-9000 Gent, Belgium.

Several years ago the International Society of Nephrology Commission on Acute Renal Failure established an International Disaster Relief Task Force with the main purpose to organize and provide nephrological and dialysis assistance in disasters, e.g. crush syndromes with acute renal failure following post-traumatic rhabdomyolysis. The European Branch of this Task Force has succeeded in establishing a relatively well organized planning scheme that has been described in detail before [1].

Since late April 1999, the European Task Force has been approached for help by the United Nations High Commissariate for Refugees in the former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia which is responsible for the refugees from Kosovo. Among the thousands of refugees, numerous chronic haemodialysis patients who were treated in Pristina and other dialysis centres in Kosovo were now admitted to the Macedonian dialysis centres for urgent dialysis. The Macedonian centres could not cope with this unexpectedly high number of new patients and were asking for urgent evacuation of some of them to other European countries. Thanks to the Task Force organization, immediate requests for help were sent to several key people in different West European countries and their governments.

Several days of negotiation at different levels of the administrations ultimately led to the evacuation of dialysis patients and their families to Belgium, Sweden, The Netherlands and to France. When needed, more patients can be received in Sweden, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. At present, The German Kuratorium für Dialyse und Nierentransplantation (secretary, M. Molzahn), pending the approval of the German government, has offered to accept an additional 10–20 patients and their families in Germany. It appears that some of the Kosovan refugees would prefer to go to Germany because of the presence of relatives or friends in this country.

Many dialysis patients who emigrated to Albania were admitted to Italian dialysis centres. The Task Force also has excellent cooperation with important dialysis industries and Baxter Europe is a permanent partner of the European branch. However, an important quantity of haemodialysis equipment was urgently sent to Skopje by Fresenius while an impressive quantity of peritoneal dialysis equipment, including fluids, was provided to Macedonia by Baxter.

Extremely good and almost daily contacts between the Task Force in Gent and the representative of the UNHCR in Macedonia, Dr Burkholder, have been established. The cooperation between the key people of the Task Force and our industry partners is excellent. We believe that the prompt and efficient help that was and still is provided is the result of a careful planning and continuous rethinking of the organization of the Task Force over the last 5 years. It is very grateful for all those involved to see that their efforts are so much appreciated.

References

  1. Lameire et al. The organization of the European Renal Disaster Relief Task Force. Renal Fail 1997; 19: 665–671[ISI][Medline]