BALKAN ENDEMIC NEPHROPATHY IN BOSNIA AND HERCEGOVINA
It has been estimated that around 2.000 patients have been affected by BEN in Bosnia before the war 1992-1995 so that the need for the assessment of the current situation has emerged for the first time after a decade of BEN enigma in Bosnia. Therefore, the medical team from Tuzla University Clinical Centre Renal Unit has visited the affected municipalities and corresponding medical centers in order to make that assessment. The main results coming out of this initiative are that BEN Dispansaries, that used to function before the war, do not function nowadays at all so that fairly often new BEN cases are detected for the first time at later stages of the disease when they already require either preparation for replacement therapy or even urgent life-saving measures. It is necessary to re-establish the system of surveillance of BEN patients that existed before the war as soon as possible. Therefore, the Project Proposal has been prepared to accomplish that goal.