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As many as one in ten adults around the world has some form of kidney damage - yet detection of this “silent” disease is as easy as a few simple tests. On International World Kidney Day, find out how you can look after your kidneys and stay healthy.
Statistics show that 500 million people are already suffering from chronic kidney disease - and the figure is rising, mainly due to the worldwide increase in type two diabetes.
Yet - as today’s (Thursday’s) third International World Kidney Day aims to highlight - kidney disease is easy to detect and manage.
Co-organisers - the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) and the International Federation of Kidney Foundations (IFKF) - say the aim of the day is to raise global awareness of chronic kidney disease and the crucial role kidneys play in keeping people alive and well, and to spread the message that kidney disease is “common, harmful and treatable”.
What is chronic kidney disease?
Chronic kidney disease is the term used when kidneys gradually lose their ability to function. It is a “silent” disease and often goes unnoticed because it may not be “felt”. Yet one in ten adults around the world suffers from some form of kidney damage.
The main causes of chronic kidney disease are high blood pressure and diabetes. Diabetes leads to a threefold increase in the risk of developing kidney failure, and it is projected that diabetes will increase by 70 per cent by 2025, hitting a total of 300 million people. Developing countries will be the most severely affected by this increase.
As many as 90 per cent of those who have chronic kidney disease remain unidentified. If chronic kidney disease worsens, it can lead to kidney failure - which means either receiving a transplanted kidney or being kept alive with dialysis, usually by a machine which cleans the blood about three times a week. Dialysis and transplant are successful treatments but in many countries they are not available, and even in developed countries may soon be unaffordable.
A greater risk than kidney failure is that people with chronic kidney disease may develop cardiovascular diseases, which are now the most important killer diseases in the world - people with chronic kidney disease are ten times more likely than healthy individuals to die of heart attacks and strokes.
And the costs of kidney failure are escalating. More than 1.5 million people worldwide are kept alive through either dialysis or transplantation - a number forecasted to double within the next ten years. The cumulative global cost for dialysis and transplantation is predicted to exceed $1 trillion (£500,000 million) within the next decade - an economic burden that will strain healthcare budgets in developed countries, while in lower income countries it will be impossible to meet such costs.
Early detection and treatment saves lives
Fortunately, early detection of chronic kidney disease is easy through simple, inexpensive blood, urine and blood pressure tests. And, once detected, it is possible to slow down and even stop the progression to kidney failure. Cardiovascular diseases can be prevented by taking the correct medicines to control blood pressure, improving control of diabetes and changing lifestyle habits. |