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Kidney
Paediatric health experts, nephrologists, and surgeons across India are sharing a unified message of reassurance: children born with a single kidney, a condition known as unilateral renal agenesis (URA), can live healthy and active lives when provided with proper medical oversight, nutritional guidance, and supportive home and school environments. According to global epidemiological data, approximately 1 in 1,000 to 2,000 babies are born with a solitary kidney. A 2023 meta-analysis covering more than 15.6 million individuals found that renal agenesis occurs in 0.03 per cent of births, with unilateral cases accounting for the majority. In many children, the functioning kidney naturally enlarges, a process called compensatory hypertrophy, allowing it to perform the work of two kidneys effectively. "Parents often feel anxious when they learn their child has one kidney, but most of these children grow up without complications," said Dr Shandip Kumar Sinha, Director of Paediatric Surger
India had the second-highest number of people with chronic kidney disease in 2023 at 138 million, following China at 152 million, according to a global study published in The Lancet journal. The condition was the ninth-leading cause of death and claimed nearly 15 lakh lives globally the same year, researchers led by those at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington and other institutes in the US and UK found. The highest prevalence was seen in North Africa and the Middle East at 18 per cent each, nearly 16 per cent in South Asia and over 15 per cent in each of Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. Chronic kidney disease is a major contributor to heart disease and accounted for almost 12 per cent of cardiovascular deaths around the world in 2023. It ranked as the seventh leading cause for heart-related mortality, ahead of diabetes and obesity, the team said. Fourteen risk factors for chronic kidney disease were detailed
An analysis of deaths in the wake of tropical cyclones in nine countries has found that the highest increase of 92 per cent was seen in deaths due to kidney diseases, followed by 21 per cent in deaths due to physical injuries. A tropical cyclone is an extreme weather event originating in oceans in the tropics, bringing violent winds, torrential rains and in some cases, destructive coastal flooding. Deaths due to diabetes were seen to increase by 15 per cent, and those due to neuropsychiatric disorders and infectious diseases by 12 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively, according to findings published in The British Medical Journal. Researchers led by those at Monash University looked at 14.8 million deaths linked to 217 tropical cyclones during 2000-2019 across 1,356 communities in nine countries including Australia, Brazil, the Philippines and Thailand. "Mortality risks from various causes consistently increased after tropical cyclones, with peaks occurring within the first two .
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is emerging as one of the country's most pressing public health concerns, a renowned nephrologist said. CKD is fuelled by lifestyle disorders like diabetes and hypertension and compounded by environmental and occupational factors, kidney ailments are no longer confined to the elderly or the urban elite, he said. If left unchecked, kidney disease could soon take on the proportions of an epidemic, the nephrologist said. Talking to PTI, Dr H Sudarshan Ballal shared his experience of witnessing how India's renal healthcare evolved from scarcity to scale but also watched new challenges emerge with unsettling speed. "When I returned to India in 1991 from the US, there were just 800 nephrologists in the entire country. In fact, there were more Indian nephrologists practising in the US than in India. We used to call ourselves one in a million," Ballal recalled. Three decades later, the situation has undoubtedly improved, with thousands of specialists and advan
High nitrate levels have been found in groundwater of 440 districts across India, with 20 per cent of the samples collected exceeding the permissible nitrate concentration, the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has said in a report. Nitrate contamination is a significant environmental and health concern, particularly in agricultural regions using nitrogen-based fertilizers and animal waste. The "Annual Groundwater Quality Report 2024" also revealed that 9.04 per cent of samples had fluoride levels above the safe limit, while 3.55 per cent showed arsenic contamination. A total of 15,259 monitoring locations were chosen nationwide to check groundwater quality in May 2023. Of these, 25 percent of wells (the most at risk per BIS 10500) were studied in detail. Groundwater was sampled at 4,982 trend stations before and after the monsoon to see how recharge affects quality. The report found that 20 per cent of water samples exceeded the nitrate limit of 45 milligrams per liter (mg/l), t