Editorial Comments Preventing end-stage renal disease: the potential impact of screening and intervention in developing countries

disease; renal replacement therapy; screening There are about 1 million people in the world that are alive just because they have access to one form or another of renal replacement therapy (RRT) [1]. Ninety percent of them live in the developed countries, or, as they are defined by the World Bank (WB), high-income countries, where the average gross income is in excess of $10 000 per capita. There is a clear, direct relationship between gross national product (GNP) and availability of RRT. Dialysis treatment absorbs 0.7 to 1.8 % of the health care budget in European countries, while the dialysis population represents 0.02 to 0.05 % of the whole population [2]. In the Eastern European countries, the so-called former Soviet block, the prevalence rate o