A Health Awareness Fair was held yesterday at Utulei Beach Park. The Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Health Awareness Fair was just one of the activities to celebrate Nephrology Nurses Week.

Yesterday was a day for the families of patients — especially dialysis patients — to help spread the awareness of the NCDs, which have taken over our health concerns.

The entire week of events was sponsored by the Society of Fafafines In American Samoa — the SOFIAS, in collaboration with the Department of Health and the Dialysis Unit Nephrology Nurses of LBJ Hospital.

The week started off with a special prayer service last Sunday at the CCCAS Faga’alu Church, where Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga stated that when he was in Hawai’i, he was given the bad news by medical experts, who told him that American Samoa is ranked #1 in the world for diabetes, obesity, heart disease and hypertension.

These are all NCDs, which means they are not communicated by virus or bacteria, but by unhealthy lifestyles, which include bad habits — such as smoking, and poor nutrition and eating habits.

On Monday and Tuesday, they held an outreach to various schools across the island, making young students aware of the dangers of not taking care of their bodies.

Tomorrow, to close out Nurses Week, there will be a ‘Healthy Walk’ starting at 5:00 a.m. from the village of Nu’uuli to Utulei Beach Park. Later there will be a Cinderella Ball and Fiafia Night from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at the Governor H. Rex Lee Auditorium.

“The whole goal of the week is to raise awareness of kidney health and try to decrease the rise of kidney disease in the territory,” said Miss SOFIAS Maya Ierome. She also stated that the whole week was also part of a project she committed to when she was selected as Miss SOFIA. Her platform included spreading the awareness of kidney disease here in American Samoa.

“We all heard the governor when he spoke about how 99.9% of the territory is affected by kidney disease. Which means that all of American Samoa is affected. Most patients do not know that they have kidney disease until they are forced to, or wait until they see and feel the effects from it, which is way too long to wait,” she said.

“You cannot reverse kidney disease, or kidney damage, but you can slow the progress of kidney failure. That is the whole purpose of this week,” she explained.

There were patients on-hand yesterday for the public to come out and visit.  Some of the dialysis patients were asked to go on stage to talk about the effects of kidney disease in their lives.

Maya Ierome thanked the governor’s office and the Department of Health for the part they played in the programs this week.

Nephrology Nurses work for the LBJ Hospital’s Dialysis Unit and they are urging everyone to join them in the fight against kidney disease and be advocates of kidney health in American Samoa.

(Nephrology comes from the Greek word nephros, which means kidney. Nephrology literally means the "study of the kidney".)

Some of the suggestions, which they gave to keep kidneys healthy included eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, drinking water instead of soda, avoiding tobacco and alcohol, and walking more often.