March 12, 2020–Globally, the burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is rapidly increasing. By 2040, it is expected to become the fifth cause of years of life lost worldwide. CKD also accounts for mounting health expenditures in many countries, at least those where renal replacement therapies are possible, including transplantation.
Prevention—primary, secondary and tertiary—is the best way to slow both the case increase and progression of this debilitating disease. Today’s World Kidney Day highlights the importance of these preventive interventions.
MEDICC Review joins journals across the globe in publishing the following article authored by Drs Philip KT Li, K. Kalantar-Zadeh and colleagues: Kidney Health for Everyone Everywhere—from Prevention to Detection and Equitable Access to Care.
They focus on some of the core elements in prevention, a number of which MEDICC Review articles have addressed. This includes primary prevention and its focus on risk-factor modification, particularly in the case of CKD of non-traditional causes, a disease that has felled over 20,000 poor farmers and field workers in Central America alone.
For more on this epidemic form of CKD in the region, see:
Herrera Valdés R, Almaguer López MA, Orantes Navarro CM, López Marín L, Brizuela Díaz EG, Bayarre Vea H, et al. Epidemic of chronic kidney disease of nontraditional etiology in El Salvador: integrated health sector action and South-South cooperation. MEDICC Rev. 2019 Oct;21(4):46–52. Available from: http://mediccreview.org/epidemic-of-chronic-kidney-disease-of-nontraditional-etiology-in-el-salvador-integrated-health-sector-action-and-south-south-cooperation/
Orantes-Navarro CM, Almaguer-López MM, Alonso-Galbán P, Díaz-Amaya M, Hernández S, Herrera-Valdés R, Silva-Ayçaguer LC. The chronic kidney disease in El Salvador: a cross-sectional study. MEDICC Rev. 2019 Apr–Jul;21(2–3):29–37. Available from: http://mediccreview.org/the-chronic-kidney-disease-epidemic-in-el-salvador-a-cross-sectional-study/
Orantes-Navarro CM, et al. Chronic Kidney Disease in Children and Adolescents in Salvadoran Farming Communities: NefroSalva Pediatric Study (2009–2011). MEDICC Rev. 2016;18(1–2):15–21. Available from: https://mediccreview.org/chronic-kidney-disease-in-children-and-adolescents-in-salvadoran-farming-communities-nefrosalva-pediatric-study-2009-2011/ Rodríguez MI. Chronic Kidney Disease in Our Farming Communities: Implications of an Epidemic. MEDICC Rev. 2014;16(2):77–78. Available from: https://mediccreview.org/chronic-kidney-disease-in-our-farming-communities-implications-of-an-epidemic/
