Rising Chronic Kidney Disease Cases In South Asia Spark Alarm: Experts Urge India To Launch National Mission For Prevention And Early Detection

The latest data on the burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in South Asia, indicating that 16% of the population is affected, should be seen as a worrying public health warning. India, the most populous country now with over 1.4 billion people, is caught up in several crises that have major health implications, one of which is the accelerating growth of CKD.

Several social and environmental factors have coalesced, notably high prevalence of diabetes and hypertension, hot climate, pollution, and toxic chemicals, leading to rising rates of kidney damage. Lifestyle factors are at play too, such as high sugar and salt content in packaged food, lack of physical activity, and disturbed sleep patterns due to work pressure, noise, and always-on entertainment. In a minority of cases, genetic factors contribute to CKD.

The medical community is naturally concerned about this snowballing crisis, as progression to kidney failure happens without warning; there is no indication of the developing disease until the kidneys have nearly stopped working. Precise numbers for CKD are not available in the Indian context due to poor data gathering, but globally, people living with kidney disease rose from 378 million in 1990 to 788 million in 2023.

What is more, the only therapy for kidney failure is dialysis or a kidney transplant, and while the former is expensive, scarce and not easily accessible in remote areas, transplants are even more difficult to have due to organ shortages. Fortunately, the understanding of CKD is improving, testing is simple and inexpensive, and modern drugs slow disease progression.

Reducing the number of people developing diabetes and hypertension, and using population-level screening to identify those who need essential drugs—which can be given free or at low cost—has to be pursued by a national mission.

A more recent entity posing a challenge in the subcontinent is CKD of unknown origin, or CKDu, where there are no identifiable factors contributing to weakening of the kidney’s functioning. Recent research commissioned by the Tamil Nadu Health System Reform Program of agricultural workers estimated that 5.3% had CKD, and half of that number had CKDu.

Significantly, besides the association of known risk factors, outdoor work that labourers do was also implicated in acute kidney injury, arguably due to low water intake. The depressing tide of data on India’s disease patterns calls for enlightened policymaking at the level of the Union, state governments and municipal bodies.

Citizens are caught in a perfect storm of unhealthy, easily available, energy-dense and salty food; restricted physical activity in vehicle-choked cities; severe air pollution; and poor sleep patterns, all of which are contributors to cardiovascular disease.

The CKD follows sooner rather than later. India can ill afford to continue going down this path. True development is predicated on a healthy, productive population, for which governments need to step up with the right policies.

Published on: Tuesday, November 11, 2025, 06:31 AM IST