The theme of World Kidney Day 2018 is “Kidneys And Women’s Health: Include, Value, Empower”.
World Kidney Day is a global health campaign celebrated every year all across the world focusing the health and importance of the major body organ, kidneys to reduce the occurrence of kidney diseases as well as related health problems.
It is commemorated worldwide on annual basis on the 2nd Thursday of March. It was started celebrating in the year 2006 by the 66 countries which were increased to become 88 countries in just 2 years.
The kidneys, which are responsible for filtering the blood of the body, have about a million tiny filters called nephrons. These stop working once they get damaged, which in turn affects the process of blood filtering.
When this function falls down to a certain point, the kidneys stop working, which we commonly address as kidney failure.
The objective of the day is to not just spread awareness about kidney diseases and its cure, but also spread message at a global level on how kidney diseases can be prevented.The most common causes of kidney disease in India in both men and women are Diabetes and Hypertension.
However, there are certain conditions affecting the kidneys that occur with a greater incidence in women – for example urinary tract infections that lead to infection and scarring of the kidneys and autoimmune diseases Rheumatoid Arthritis and Systemic Lupus Erythematous.
Chronic kidney disease can negatively impact a woman’s fertility and in some cases, the medication used to treat certain kidney diseases can have the same effect.
Specific gender roles are still very clearly defined in India. Women in our country today, still have less access to education and therefore tend to be more financially dependent on men.
The annual World Kidney Day campaign allows us to assess where we are today with kidney health across the globe. This year’s theme of women’s health has focused our attention on the specific difficulties faced by this segment of the population.
