• Urges early screening, responsible drug use, lifestyle changes
• 25.4m Nigerians may be living with kidney disease —Arogundade

Consultant Neurosurgeon and Chief Executive Officer of Wellington Neurology and Neurosurgery Hospital, Abuja, Dr Charles Ugwuanyi, has warned that Nigeria is facing a growing kidney health crisis, with as many as 9,000 new cases of end-stage kidney failure reportedly emerging every month.

Hecalled for urgent attention to prevention, early diagnosis and improved access to specialist care.

Similarly, Vice Chancellor of the University of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Abeokuta, Prof Fatiu Arogundade, said about 25.4 million adult Nigerians may be living with CKD.

Speaking to journalists on thehospital’s 15th anniversary in Abuja yesterday, Ugwuanyi said the reported monthly figure was alarming and underscored the need for Nigerians to take routine health checks seriously rather than wait until symptoms become severe.

He who spoke on kidney disease prevention and the challenges of delivering specialised healthcare in Nigeria.

Hypertension, diabetes, excessive alcohol consumption and the indiscriminate use of medications were identified as important risk factors that require greater public awareness and intervention.

Ugwuanyi stated that the country’s response to kidney disease must go beyond social media campaigns and sensational commentary to practical measures that help prevent illness, support affected patients and improve access to treatment.

“It is assuming an epidemic pattern, and the question is, why is it so? The solution is not in making noise on social media. It is to find out what the issues are and how you can help,” he said.

According to him, the growing burden of kidney disease calls for a stronger culture of preventive healthcare, particularly among young Nigerians who may be living with high blood pressure or elevated blood sugar without knowing it.

He expressed concern that many Nigerians, including young adults, are reluctant to undergo routine medical examinations, often because they feel healthy or believe that serious illness will not affect them.

Ugwuanyi urged Nigerians to make blood pressure and blood sugar checks part of their regular healthcare routine, stressing that early detection gives patients an opportunity to manage underlying conditions before irreversible damage occurs

AROGUNDADEdisclosed the figure while delivering the 430th Inaugural Lecture of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, entitled ‘The Burden, Barriers, Bottlenecks and Breakthroughs in the Management of Kidney Disease in Nigeria: A Journey from the Grassroots to the Frontiers’.

Drawing on more than three decades of clinical practice and research, the don described kidney disease as an epidemic and a major public health challenge, Warning that Nigeria urgently needs a coordinated national response covering prevention, early detection and affordable treatment.

He said Nigeria still lacked a single national registry to determine the definitive prevalence of CKD, adding that a peer-reviewed Nigerian study involving 14,250 participants reported a pooled prevalence of 20.4 per cent.

According to him, applying the figure to the adult population suggested that about 25.4 million Nigerians could be living with overt or covert CKD, while approximately 127,000 could have advanced CKD or end-stage renal disease.

Arogundade said CKD in Nigeria had a distinctive demographic pattern, affecting many people between 20 and 50 years of age, unlike in developed countries where the disease is more commonly associated with older populations.

He identified hypertension and glomerulonephritis as the leading causes, with diabetes, HIV-associated nephropathy and obstructive kidney disease also contributing significantly.

The professor said environmental exposures and sickle cell disease were also important contributors to the burden of kidney disease in Nigeria.