Renal disease in Colombia

Chronic renal disease represents a problem of public health in Colombia. Its prevalence has increased in last decade, with a prevalence of 44.7 patients per million (ppm) in 1993 to 294.6 ppm in 2004, considering that only 56.2% of the population has access to the health. This increase complies with the implementation of Law 100 of 1993, offering greater coverage of health services to the Colombian population. The cost of these pathologies is equivalent to the 2.49% of the budget for health of the nation. The three most common causes of renal failure are diabetes mellitus (DM; 30%), arterial hypertension (30%), and glomerulonephritis (7.85%). In incident patients, the DM accounts for 32.9%. The rate of global mortality is 15.8%, 17.4% in hemodialysis and 15.1% in peritoneal dialysis. In 2004, 467 renal transplants were made, 381 of deceased donor with an incidence of 10.3 ppm. The excessive cost of these pathologies can cause the nation's health care system to collapse if preventative steps are not taken. In December of 2004, the Colombian Association of Nephrology with the participation of the Latin American Society of Nephrology and Arterial Hypertension wrote the "Declaration of Bogotá," committing the state's scientific societies and promotional health companies to develop a model of attention for renal health that, in addition to implementing national registries, continues to manage renal disease.