Kidney health for all – Promoting equitable access to the best care and treatments – Current affairs

On March 14, 2024, World Kidney Day is celebrated, this year with the theme “Kidney Health for All – Promoting equitable access to the best care and treatments”.

Kidney disease is largely unknown to a large part of the population despite affecting around 1 to 2 Portuguese people in every 10! In 2040 it will represent the 5th cause of death in the world and is responsible for an important share of the state health budget in all countries that have the most advanced care to treat it. On the other hand, those who suffer from this disease know very well the impact it has on their quality of life, their social, professional and family life.

The objective of this celebration (World Kidney Day) which takes place every year on the 2nd Thursday of March is to raise awareness of this problem.

With advances in medicine, kidney disease can be diagnosed early and treated so that it does not reach the more advanced stages, in which dialysis or kidney transplantation are the only treatment options. To prevent the diagnosis from being too late, it is essential that all citizens are aware of the disease, have access to healthcare to confirm it and have access to the increasing number of treatments available.

As far as the diagnosis is concerned, it always depends on analysis, as it rarely manifests itself through symptoms that the patient can identify. The analyzes must be carried out in risk groups such as diabetic patients, hypertensive patients, urological, autoimmune or chronic infectious diseases. A blood and urine test is sufficient.

In the early stages, follow-up can and should be carried out by your family doctor. In complex or more advanced cases, monitoring is carried out by a nephrologist, a doctor specialized in monitoring functional kidney diseases.

As for treatments, they must be individualized. In the last 5 years, the treatment of chronic kidney disease has advanced immensely and it is expected that early intervention in this pathology will change the current scenario in which Portugal is the country in Europe with the most patients on dialysis in Europe and the 8th in the world.

On this March 14, 2024, World Kidney Day, we call on all patients in risk groups to have access to their Family Doctor for screening so that they can make a timely diagnosis and begin early risk-modifying therapies. progression of kidney disease and cardiovascular disease.

See your doctor, take care of your kidneys!

An opinion article by Ana Farinha, nephrologist.