Chronic kidney disease and why we need to take it more seriously and sign up to be an organ donor

The number of Hongkongers being diagnosed with kidney disease is rising dramatically, but because it has few symptoms in its early stages, most people don’t consider getting a check-up until it becomes more serious

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Sydney Tang, chair of Renal Medicine and Yu Professor in Nephrology at the University of Hong Kong. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 8:50am, 30 Dec 2017Updated: 5:07pm, 31 Dec 2017

Despite the alarming rise of chronic kidney disease in Hong Kong, experts say few people take steps to check and maintain their kidney health and fewer still consider it a mortal threat.

CKD is any damage to the organs that curtails their ability to filter, enrich and purify your blood. Renal impairment allows waste to clog up the system, and complications can arise, such as heart disease, even early death.

Dr Ho Chung-ping, chairman of Hong Kong Nephrology Group, which promotes prevention and early detection of kidney diseases, says low awareness of CKD plays a role. In its early stages, the disease has no obvious symptoms.

“If you don’t have any pain, you are not going to see a doctor,” he says. However, the consequences of a late-stage diagnosis are that renal dysfunction has become so severe that patients face the prospect of dialysis or a transplant.

According to the Renal Registry in Hong Kong, 8,510 patients with severe CKD required renal replacement therapy (RRT) in the form of dialysis or transplant in 2013, 2½ times as many as in 1996 when there were 3,312 patients. The Hospital Authority says there are more than 7,000 patients with end-stage renal failure in Hong Kong on RRT – a 90 per cent rise over the past decade. The growing number of Hongkongers diagnosed with CKD coincides with the city’s rise in diabetics.

The Private Patient Renal Registry shows that about 60 per cent of patients on dialysis have diabetic kidney disease. Other leading causes are hypertension and kidney inflammation (glomerulonephritis). Government statistics suggest the percentage of those with chronic kidney disease due to diabetes has risen from 25 per cent in 1996 to 46 per cent in 2009.