News Suppressed that 90% of Kidney Dialysis Is Preventable
Contact:
David W. Moskowitz MD
CEO, GenoMed
tel. 314.983.9933
dwmoskowitz@genomed.com
ST. LOUIS--September 22, 2005--GenoMed (OTC Pink Sheets GMED), a Next Generation Disease Management company whose business is public health, charged today that news of its ability to prevent up to 90% of chronic kidney disease has been suppressed for the past three years.
Three years ago, GenoMed published a peer-reviewed medical article showing how chronic kidney disease due to diabetes and high blood pressure can be prevented. Diabetes and high blood pressure account for 90% of kidney dialysis patients in the United States. Medicare currently spends about $25 billion annually on kidney failure, in the form of dialysis and kidney transplantation.
Prevention is not possible once a patient is on dialysis. There is a narrow window of opportunity when prevention is still possible: before the patient has lost more than half of their kidney function, that is, when their serum creatinine is still less than 2. Patients are still being seen by their primary care providers at this point, and haven't yet been referred to kidney doctors. So education of patients and their primary care providers--general internists and family practitioners--is key.
Reporters required independent confirmation of GenoMed's claims, evidently being unwilling or unable to evaluate the scientific paper for themselves. Yet none of the professional kidney associations has been willing to endorse or attempt to replicate this treatment. Not the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare (CMS), who were briefed on this treatment a year ago, not the National Institute for Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), an Institute within the National Institutes of Health, not the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, not the National Kidney Foundation, nor the American Society of Nephrology, the International Society of Nephrology, the American Kidney Fund, the American Association of Kidney Patients, the numerous regional ESRD Networks which manage dialysis facilities, the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the American Medical Association, nor the National Medical Association. Since dialysis primarily affects people of color, the NMA's silence has been particularly hurtful. Nor has the Society of Transplant Surgeons spoken up, although there is a chronic kidney shortage in the U.S., and preventing the need for kidney transplants would certainly help.
Said Dr. David Moskowitz, GenoMed's CEO and Chief Medical Officer, "The American people saw unforgettably how federal, state, and local governments failed the people of New Orleans just three weeks ago. What the American people don't realize is how they've all been short-changed for the past three years. Minorities are much more affected by kidney failure than whites. There's a dialysis boom on Indian reservations."
Dr. Moskowitz continued, "By their silence, the organizations which the public relies on to protect their health have instead let them down, no doubt out of self-interest. Apparently the non-profit organizations have all learned the lesson of the March of Dimes, which, by defeating polio, lost its raison d'etre. Nephrologists and transplant surgeons have forgotten that the goal of every physician is to prevent disease and put themselves out of business."
About GenoMed
GenoMed discovers the genes that cause disease and uses this knowledge to improve patient outcomes. The company's primary commitment is to public health, which involves public education. In addition to having treatments for acute and chronic kidney failure, emphysema, and autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis and alopecia, GenoMed has developed a broad-spectrum anti-viral approach that should work for avian influenza, and has already worked for West Nile virus. The Centers for Disease Control has similarly suppressed dissemination of GenoMed's treatment for West Nile virus encephalitis. GenoMed's anti-viral treatment was specifically mentioned in BioShield II, currently being debated in the US Senate (see Section 2151 of Senate bill S. 975). To enroll in GenoMed's free clinical trial for West Nile virus, which uses already existing, safe medication present in every drug store and hospital, just go to www.genomed.com and click on the link for the West Nile virus trial.
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