IMA General Secretary R N Tandon said the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension in urban adult population has risen to 20 per cent as per the Indian Council of Medical Research data.
"With rising prevalence of various lifestyle diseases in India, prevalence of kidney disease has also almost doubled in the last decade and is expected to rise further," Tandon said.
"Besides the large and ever growing burden of non-communicable diseases (diabetes and hypertension), various people are affected by kidney diseases due to over-the- counter drugs and traditional medicines containing heavy metals which harm the kidneys," the IMA general secretary said.
The risk of developing chronic kidney disease (CKD) is at least as high in women as in men, and may even be higher. However, the number of women on dialysis in India is lower than the number of men, Tandon said.
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The IMA launched a Kidney Disease Prevention project today, as part of which screening and awareness drives will be organised to identify the population at risk.
"It is clear that treatment of kidney disease and its advanced stage end stage renal disease is expensive and beyond the reach of average Indian. Thus, it is crucial that prevention of chronic kidney disease has to be the goal of medical fraternity, government of India and the general public," Aggarwal said.