World Kidney Day 2022 Theme, Significance; How to keep kidneys healthy

World Kidney Day (WKD) is celebrated every year on the second Thursday of March. It is the global awareness campaign to raise awareness of the importance of kidneys to our health and to reduce the impact of kidney disease and its associated health problems worldwide. One in 10 people is affected by kidney disease globally.

World Kidney Day is a joint initiative of the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) and the International Federation of Kidney Foundations (IFKF).

World Kidney Day 2022 Date: World Kidney Day falls on March 10 in 2022.

World Kidney Day 2022 Theme: “Kidney Health for All”

The WKD Joint Steering Committee calls for everyone worldwide to not only be aware of the disease, but to actively know what their own kidney health measures are. For example, what their blood pressure is and what the treatment objectives are. It is a cause that involves all of us in the kidney community worldwide — physicians, scientists, nurses and other health-care providers, patients, administrators, health-policy experts, government officials, nephrology organizations, and foundations. All need to be aware of the ways in which more attention to the kidney in the setting of government policies can lead to major benefits both to patients and to health-care budgets.

Challenges to kidney health:

Despite the growing burden of kidney diseases worldwide, kidney health disparity and inequity are still widespread. Transplantation has high set up costs with regards to infrastructure and requires highly specialized teams, availability of organ donors and cannot be done without dialysis backup. Physical and legal infrastructure requirements and cultural bias against organ donation often present barriers in many countries, making dialysis the default option.

What is Chronic Kidney Disease?

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a progressive loss in kidney function over a period of months or years. When kidney function falls below a certain point it is called kidney failure and untreated kidney failure can be life-threatening which requires dialysis or a kidney transplant to maintain life. Chronic kidney disease may be caused by diabetes, high blood pressure and other disorders. Early detection and treatment can often keep chronic kidney disease from getting worse. CKD and AKI often arise from the social conditions such as poverty, gender discrimination, lack of education, occupational hazards and pollution among others.

Eight golden rules to keep your kidneys healthy:

• Keep fit, be active
• Eat a healthy diet
• Check and control your blood sugar
• Check and control your blood pressure
• Take appropriate fluids during day
• Don’t smoke
• Don’t take over-the-counter anti-inflammatory/ pain-killer pills regularly
• Get your kidney function checked if you have one or more of the ‘high risk’ factors

You should know:

• Kidney diseases are silent killers. Early chronic kidney disease has no signs or symptoms.
• Chronic kidney disease usually does not go away.
• Blood and urine tests are used to check for kidney disease.
• Kidney disease can be treated. The earlier diagnosis of CKD gives better chances of receiving effective treatment.
• Diabetes and high blood pressure are key risk factors for Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD).
• Kidney disease can progress to kidney failure.