World Kidney Day celebrated for the first time in Al Ain

Notes and media contacts

Did you know?
Kidneys are bean-shaped organs, each about the size of your fist. They are located near the middle of your back, just below the rib cage.
Every 30 minutes, kidneys filter all the blood in the body, removing about 2 quarts of waste products and excess water each day. The waste and extra water become urine, which flows to the bladder for storage until later disposal.
A healthy kidney is so efficient that 99 percent of all fluid is reabsorbed.
More than 500 million persons worldwide - 10% of the adult population - have some form of kidney damage, and every year millions die prematurely of cardiovascular diseases linked to Chronic Kidney Disease.
The leading causes of kidney failure are diabetes and high blood pressure, which often run in families.
The only common cause of kidney failure that is directly passed down from your parents is PKD (Polycystic Kidney Disease) however it is not the only type of disease that can be inherited. Kidney stones are one of the most painful of the urologic disorders and are also one of the most common. The largest known kidney stone weighed 1.36 kilograms. The smallest kidney stones are microscopic crystals; it is possible to analyze stones weighing less than 0.1 mg.

For more information, visit:
www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/85/12/06-039370/en/
www.worldkidneyday.org
www.worldkidneyday.org.uk

For more information, please contact:
Sumaya Al Harrasi
Business Development Senior Officer
Tawam Hospital
Tel: +971-3-7072160
Fax: +971-3-7075192

Selina Kleinwort
PR Media Relations & Events Manager
O2 Marketing Communications
Tel: +971-4-3122777
Fax: +971-4-3122700

About Tawam Hospital
Tawam Hospital is a premier, 477-bed tertiary care facility located in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, and the largest of the United Arab Emirates. Tawam serves as a regional referral centre for specialized medical care and a national referral centre for oncology services. Though it offers services in all specialties, the hospital is best known for its neonatal care, emergency medicine, intensive care, oncology services and state-of-the-art cardiac care.

In 2006 Tawam Hospital entered a ten year affiliation with Johns Hopkins Medicine International demonstrating the hospital's commitment to providing the best services in the GCC region whilst minimizing patient referrals overseas.

Tawam Hospital will be launching new services in 2008 and will begin an entire revamping project resulting in state of the art facilities providing the hospitals' patients with the most recent technological facilities in the region meeting international standards.

About Johns Hopkins Medicine
When The Johns Hopkins Hospital and The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine were established in Baltimore, USA, over a century ago, the founding physicians had a goal: to lead the world in treating diseases. Today, the name Johns Hopkins is synonymous with just that. Johns Hopkins Medicine continues to provide international leadership in the education of physicians and medical scientists, in biomedical research, and in the application of medical knowledge to sustain health.

About Amgen

Amgen is a leading human therapeutics company in the biotechnology industry from the USA. For more than 25 years, the company has tapped the power of scientific discovery and innovation to advance the practice of medicine. Amgen pioneered the development of novel products based on advances in recombinant DNA and molecular biology and launched the biotechnology industry's first blockbuster medicines. Today, as a Fortune 500 company serving millions of patients, Amgen continues to be an entrepreneurial, science-driven enterprise dedicated to helping people fight serious illness.