Chronic kidney

matters • CKD is an important disease group that threatens health. • End-stage kidney disease (ESKD) has led to an increasing number of dialysis and transplanted patients worldwide, posing a massive burden on health economics, especially in developing countries. • ESKD resulting from hypertensive and/ or diabetic nephropathy is increasing glo-bally, especially in the elderly. However, hypertension with renal dysfunction is an even greater problem in South Africa (SA), occurring in relatively young black patients who often also have severe target organ damage (heart and kidney). • The development of CKD is associated with atherosclerosis caused by lifestyle-related diseases such as obesity, hyper-tension and diabetes. Even in the absence of lifestyle diseases, CKD is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). • CKD is an important disease group that is most likely to cause CVD, hospitalisation or death, thus threatening the health of South Africans. • In an article by Mayosi et al.,[1] end-stage renal failure (ESRF) has been shown to be the fifth highest cause of non-traumatic death in SA. Only estimated or deduced statistics exist for SA. However, with our burden of hypertensive ESKD, HIV nephropathy and other poverty-related disorders, it is highly likely that the sub-Saharan burden of CKD is far higher than that in developed countries. In Japan, with a population of>104 000 000, the prevalence of CKD wa