Chronic kidney disease and the global NCDs agenda

2017 is an important year for the international nephrology community. March 9 was World Kidney Day, the theme this year being ‘Kidney disease and obesity: healthy lifestyles for healthy kidneys’, highlighting the crucial link between the kidneys and metabolic and cardiovascular health. In April, the Global Kidney Health Atlas, one of the largest health-related country capacity reviews in history, was launched at the World Congress of Nephrology in Mexico City. The Atlas, a first for the nephrology community, is a multinational cross-sectional survey designed to assess need and capacity for kidney care worldwide and provide the foundation for a global surveillance network for chronic kidney disease (CKD) care. CKD is an enormous public health issue, the tide of which continues to inexorably rise. In the 2015 Global Burden of Disease Study, kidney disease was the 12th most common cause of death, accounting for 1.1 million deaths worldwide.1 Overall CKD mortality has increased by 31.7% over the last 10 years, making it one of the fastest rising major causes of death, alongside diabetes and dementia.1 In the same study, CKD ranked as the 17th leading cause of global years lost of life, an 18.4% increase since 2005, and the third largest increase of any major cause of death.1 This is in stark contrast to other non-communicable diseases, for example cardiovascular disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, where global years lost of life fell during the same time period (−10.2% and −3.0%, respectively).1 Unabated growth in the incidence of diabetic kidney disease, underpinned by a global imbalance between overnutrition and inadequate physical inactivity causing overweight and obesity, is the key driver of CKD burden. Between 2005 and 2015, the prevalence of diabetic kidney disease increased by 39.5% globally.1 In Mexico, the country with the highest CKD death rate in the world, …