The European Kidney Health Alliance and World Kidney Day organisations have called for urgent EU action to curb the increasing burden of chronic kidney disease and associated diseases.
The MEPs Group for Kidney Health met with some of Europe’s top kidney experts at a lunch seminar in the European Parliament in Strasbourg held in honour of World Kidney Day, an annual global awareness-raising campaign which fell yesterday.
Ms Frieda Brepoels, MEP, stated: “Unfortunately, the fact that we are still confronted with so many people on dialysis, or on the waiting list for a donor organ, proves to a certain extent the inherent failure of our public health system.
“Transplantation is the last resort for people with chronic kidney disease. The Parliament’s recent work on quality and safety of transplantation and on the availability of donor organs has been important, but it is not enough. We should also focus on how we can prevent European citizens from needing transplant-ation in the first place.”
Speaking at the seminar, Andrew Rees, professor and chairman of the European Kidney Health Alliance, commented “We want to make policymakers aware of the importance of chronic kidney disease to the health of Europe’s citizens. It is common, affecting one in 10 of the popul-ation, and not only predisposes to kidney failure but greatly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and strokes.”
Colin Baigent, professor of epidemiology and honorary consultant in public health at the University of Oxford, explained that premature cardiovascular disease is the biggest cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and kidneys had an important role in cardiovascular disease.
“Some of the major causes of heart disease, particularly diabetes and high blood pressure, are also potent causes of kidney disease, so heart and kidney disease frequently occur together. As European populations get older, this deadly combination of diseases will become very common, so research into their prevention should be a public health priority.”
In patients with CKD, cardiovascular disease may also be caused by a severe disorder of mineral and bone metabolism, causing calcium release from bone and deposition in the blood vessels.
This in turn may lead to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. The majority of an estimated 324,000 CKD patients on dialysis in Europe suffer from some degree of disordered mineral and bone meta-bolism.
As well as the ageing popul-ation, recent trends in European lifestyles greatly increase the risk of developing chronic diseases, including CKD, and action to reverse them needs to be taken now if the targets set out in the Europe 2020 strategy are to be met, including the goal of having 75 per cent of the working-age population employed and productive. Tobacco use, high alcohol consumption, poor nutrition, obesity and lack of physical activity all contribute to the rising prevalence of CKD and related diseases.
EKHA called for increased recognition of CKD and related diseases in European policymaking, and for concrete action to tackle lifestyle factors that may increase the risk of developing chronic diseases. EKHA welcomes the recent Council conclusions on innovative approaches for chronic diseases in public health and healthcare systems, and looks forward to the initiation of a reflection progress by the European Commission to identify options to optimise the response to the challenges of chronic diseases.
The European Kidney Health Alliance is an alliance of not-for-profit organisations who represent the key stakeholders in kidney health issues in Europe.
EKHA takes a multi-disciplinary approach involving patients and their families, doctors and nurses, researchers and other healthcare professionals who work cooperatively for a European health environment in which there is a sustained decrease in kidney disease and its consequences.