NIH Program To Target Blacks, People at High Risk for Kidney Disease
NIH has launched the National Kidney Disease Education Program, a public awareness campaign that aims to educate people with diabetes, high blood pressure or relatives with kidney problems for the disease to help "stem a 20-year rise in kidney failure," AP/Long Island Newsday reports. The new program will focus initially on African Americans in Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland and Jackson, Miss. Program workers will conduct educational campaigns in churches and at sporting events, and inner-city hospitals will sponsor screening days. African Americans are four times more likely than other racial groups to experience kidney failure, according to AP/Newsday. Dr. Thomas Hostetter, the program's director, said, "People at risk ought to know it and ask their doctors for the test. There's something you can do about it." About 20 million people have kidney disease, and many are unaware they have the ailment, which could be "largely preventable" if people knew they had the condition sooner, AP/Newsday reports. Only about 10% of Medicare beneficiaries receive kidney disease tests each year, according to Hostetter. Further, fewer than one-third of people diagnosed with kidney disease receive medications proven to prevent further damage. About 400,000 people currently require dialysis or kidney transplants to live, a figure that is expected to double in the next 10 years. The NIH plans to expand the program to other cities and groups in spring 2004 (Neergaard, AP/Long Island Newsday, 7/14).
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