Soaps with mercury substances can cause Chronic Kidney Diseases (CKD) in children, Prof Timothy Adedoyin of the Paediatrics and Child Health Department, College of Health Sciences, University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) has said.

He spoke in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital while delivering the institution's 109th inaugural lecture.

Adedoyin said: "The use of soap containing mercury on children is a modifiable risk factor in CKD. The soap like bleaching cream has mercury which is injurious to the kidney.

"There is no uniform distribution of mercury and since it has poor lipid solubility, it accumulates mostly in the kidneys with insufficient renal excretion resulting in renal damage."

He listed other identifiable risk factors of complications to include use of cream containing steriod, excessive use of analgesic and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and inadequate management of diarrhoea illness and malaria.

He defined CKD as kidney damage manifested by structural or functional abnormalties lasting three or four months with or without decreased glomerular filtration rates.

Adedoyin said the disease, cost effective to manage remains one of the most devastating child hood disorder,"it robs them of school hours either due to frequent hospital admissions and follow- up attendance at clinic."

The professor of paediatrics reeled out statistics of kidney transplants in Nigeria to date, putting the figure at 156 with a private hospital in Lagos doing over 73 per cent of such cases.

He put the age range of the recipients at between 13 and 67 years. besides he said the graft survival in a year was about 84 per cent.

He added that of the 14 that have been transplanted for more than 10 years, only 10 are alive.

Adedoyin urged Nigerian government to provide dialysis and transplanting equipment and treatment free to its citizens just like some advanced countries.