renal disease in the caribbean

 The burden of renal disease is large. The number of people with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) requiring renal replacement therapy continues to rise worldwide. There are now around 1.5 million dialysis patients around the world. It is estimated that there are over 300,000 dialysis patients in the US, 35,000 in Canada and almost 250,000 in Europe.

A study of several countries in the Caribbean by the Caribbean Institute of Nephrology (University of the West Indies) indicates that there is an increasing number of persons with ESRD in the Caribbean. They conclude that it is important to have a Caribbean renal registry in order to perform international comparisons in renal epidemiology. The registry will monitor the incidence and prevalence of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) or ESRD, its causes and emerging trends. It will help with the determination of the burden of kidney disease in the region and inform healthcare planners and policy formulators. The report concluded that hypertension, chronic glomerulonephritis (GN) and diabetes mellitus were the most common causes of ESRD across most of the English-speaking Caribbean. They also reported that peritoneal dialysis was only offered on some of the islands and kidney transplantation was rarely reported. The data also indicated that more males than females were on long-term renal replacement therapy on most of the islands.