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The Caribbean Pub­lic Health Agency (CARPHA) is urg­ing ear­ly test­ing and lifestyle changes as the re­gion ob­serves World Kid­ney Day to­day. The theme this year is Kid­ney Health for All – Car­ing for Peo­ple, Pro­tect­ing the Plan­et.

CARPHA high­lights that chron­ic kid­ney dis­ease (CKD) af­fects mil­lions world­wide, with 15.4% of adults in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean liv­ing with the con­di­tion. The agency notes that ear­ly de­tec­tion of CKD, par­tic­u­lar­ly in peo­ple with di­a­betes, hy­per­ten­sion, car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease, obe­si­ty, or a fam­i­ly his­to­ry of kid­ney dis­ease, can re­duce the need for ad­vanced treat­ments and im­prove health out­comes.

CARPHA Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor Dr Lisa In­dar said, “Im­prov­ing the pre­ven­tion and con­trol of di­a­betes and hy­per­ten­sion, en­cour­ag­ing health­i­er di­ets, and in­creas­ing phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty are crit­i­cal steps to­ward pro­tect­ing kid­ney health across the Caribbean.”