Sri Lanka on Wednesday vowed to tackle the spread of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) in the island nation and will host an international conference this month to address the issue.

Officials involved in addressing CKD in Sri Lanka said that Sri Lanka's Gardiner Foundation which had tied up with the Brussels based International Society of Nephrology (ISN), will inaugurate the 'ISN-Gardiner Foundation in Colombo, which will be attended by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe along with the participation of world recognized Nephrologists.

Sri Lanka estimates that as many as 400,000 people in the North Central Province may be affected by CKD, with five or six out of 100 people affected.

"CKD has been spreading in various parts of Sri Lanka at an unprecedented rate over the past two decades. This was a relatively new phenomenon that Sri Lanka and the government has had to face," a statement by the Gardiner Foundation said.

The Foundation said that inadequate medical facilities, especially in the detected areas, and the sociological factors that have affected the communities involved have become a major concern for the Sri Lankan government and the island's medical fraternity.

According to medical experts, 300 to 600 CKD related deaths occur in Sri Lankan hospitals annually.

Some put the number of deaths due to CKD at 5,000 per annum, as many deaths due to CKD are not recorded as they occur at home in remote rural areas.

The Gardiner Foundation is headed by Sanjiv Gardiner who was last year appointed by President Sirisena as an "Ambassador for the prevention of Kidney Disease".

Gardiner is a Sri Lankan businessman and Chairman of the Galle Face group which owns and manages a domestic chain of hotels in the island country.

(Xinhua)