27 May MEDICC Review Journal on Chronic Kidney Disease Launched in El Salvador: Hosted by the Pan American Health Organization and El Salvador’s Ministry of Health
Epidemic of Chronic Kidney Disease of Uncertain Causes
Hits Agricultural Communities around the World
Oakland, CA May 27, 2014 — MEDICC Review’s landmark print edition of Chronic Kidney Disease Hits Agricultural Communities will be launched in the Salvadoran capital May 30th at an event co-hosted by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and El Salvador’s Ministry of Health.
The first peer-reviewed journal to devote an entire issue to this epidemic, MEDICC Review explores an emerging type of chronic kidney disease of uncertain causes (CKDu), not attributable to risk factors such as diabetes and hypertension. The disease has particularly targeted young male farm laborers and is sweeping poor agricultural communities as far apart as El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Egypt and India. Chronic kidney disease is rising as a top cause of death worldwide; and is the third cause of hospital deaths in El Salvador.
“At present, a large number of individuals with CKDu will die of untreated end-stage renal disease. Thus, there is an urgent need to find the cause, and for early prevention and treatment,” stated Dr. Giuseppe Remuzzzi, president of the International Society of Nephrology, in his MEDICC Review article.
The event in San Salvador will convene regional nephrologists, chronic disease specialists, public health experts, foundations and community leaders. Featured speakers include guest editor Dr. Wendy Hoy, Director of the Centre for Chronic Diseases, The University of Queensland School of Medicine, Australia, whose research focuses on chronic kidney disease in Aboriginal and other vulnerable populations; and Dr. Maria Isabel Rodríguez, El Salvador’s Minister of Health and also a contributing author to the MEDICC Review issue.
In her article Chronic Kidney Disease in Our Farming Communities: Implications of an Epidemic, Dr. Rodríguez comments on the burden represented by the disease. “Urgent intersectoral work and international support is required to overcome the challenges ahead for Central America’s communities, health systems, and governments…challenges otherwise overwhelming,” she notes.
The special issue of MEDICC Review features articles on the global reach of CKDu and its epidemiological challenges, as well as the role of nontraditional risk factors and social determinants, by authors from five countries: Sri Lanka, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Cuba and the USA. An online supplement Research & Perspectives on CKDu in International Journals provides a current listing of article abstracts from research related to the disease published in peer-reviewed journals.
“Public health actions are required now to protect lives, even before the exact combination of multifactorial causes that trigger CKDu are uncovered” said Gail Reed, Executive Editor of MEDICC Review. “Coordinated, transparent research with the goal of treatment and prevention should guide further research.”
The only English-language journal focusing on health and medicine in Cuba and other developing countries, MEDICC Review is an open-access peer-reviewed publication of Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba (MEDICC), Oakland, California, USA.
Readers from over 100 countries freely view and download full-text articles at http://www.medicc.org/mediccreview. Articles can also be accessed through PubMed and other indexing services.
Since 1997, MEDICC has worked to enhance cooperation among the US, Cuban and global health communities aimed at better health outcomes and equity. MEDICC produced the feature film ¡Salud! and publishes the MEDLINE-indexed journal MEDICC Review. MEDICC supports research in Cuba by US health professionals, assists US students and graduates of Havana’s Latin American Medical School to return to US underserved communities, and organizes Community Partnerships for Health Equity to improve health care and access in communities such as South Los Angeles and Oakland, California; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and The Bronx, New York. See: www.medicc.org