Iga Nephropathy medical condition question.

[Kev.]

Hi Folks I have asked this question else where on the forum on some one else's thread but I think it may of been missed, so I thought I would post it up again on it's own thread.

Does anyone have or know if having 'Iga Nephropathy' (Berger's disease) would stop one passing a medical and becoming a trainee train driver?

 

[me123]

There probably isn't an easy answer to this. It's quite an uncommon condition and its severity can vary quite widely from person to person. It may be one of these things where the candidate is looked upon as an individual, rather than there being a blanket policy for something like this. I'd expect that they'd look at the candidate's renal function (maybe serial results over some time) and urinalyses, and whatever medications they may be taking. The clinician would probably need to get a second opinion from a nephrologist as to the projected course of the disease.

Certainly, I could see significantly impaired or declining renal function being a barrier to employment. But someone with stable results who is unencumbered by the disease probably wouldn't have any problems.

 

[Kev.]

Thank you me123 for taking the time to reply to my post.

The diagnosis of the condition is that it is not necessary for any medication to be taken apart from blood pressure tablets as that was slightly high, but that now has returned to normal levels due to the pills. The condition over the last four years as been stable, infact the condition as improved. There is no side effects of the condition and infact without the diagnosis from the nephrologist you wouldn't know that it even exists. So from your reply it would seem that it could well be acceptable to have the condition and still be able to carry out the duties of a train driver.

 

[me123]

I'm coming purely from a medical background (not rail), but it sounds as though it should be OK then.