A Samoa health official is hopeful that more Samoans will embrace lifestyle changes to ward off the threat of non-communicable diseases.
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The manager of the Ministry of Health's Renal Division, Christina Poliai, said the numbers seeking dialysis have escalated in the 12 years since dialysis facilities were first available in Samoa.
She said they were up from six in 2005 to 103 now, which has required an additional shift.
Ms Poliai said the numbers needing dialysis could still climb substantially but she hopes the work that has gone into educating people about how to combat NCDs starts to bear fruit.
"So hopefully in the next five years we will start to see the effect of that, but at the moment it is just that people are starting to change their lifestyles, especially with their eating habits, exercising, eating the right kind of food, all those measures that can try and reduce the incidence of NCDs and especially kidney disease."
