BACKGROUND: World Kidney Day (WKD) is an annual global campaign meant to raise awareness about the importance of kidneys and reduce the frequency and impact of kidney disease but the focus is usually on adults and not children. This is a report of screening of children during WKD 2011 in Giwa, a semiurban community in Nigeria. METHODOLOGY: The importance of screening was communicated through talks, songs and plays. Blood pressure (BP), weight and height were measured and dipstick urinalysis done. Proteinuria, hematuria, glycosuria and nitrituria were defined as 1+ or more, hypertension as BP greater than 95% for age, gender, and height. RESULTS: A total of 115 children (3 to 15 years, mean 9.97±3 years) participated; 93(80.8%) were male, 89(77.4%) were students. Six (6.4%) of 94 children whose BP were measured were hypertensive. Proteinuria, haematuria, glycosuria was detected in 3(2.7%), 2(1.8%) and 16(14.9%) respectively of 107 children. No child had nitrituria. Only one child went to the tertiary centre for follow up.CONCLUSION: Mass screening for hypertension, proteinuria, haematuria, glycosuria may be worthwhile but not for urinary tract infection. Data collected during WKD on a national scale could help determinate the cost benefit of screening and contribute to development of national screening policies in resource constrained countries. WKD offers opportunities to screen children who might otherwise be missed (e.g. those who don’t attend school and/or in rural areas). Greater effort must be made to follow up those with abnormalities. This could be done by evaluating them in local health centres. Disclosures Financial support : The study was part funded by Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Shika-Zaria, Nigeria Introduction World Kidney Day (WKD) is an annual global health campaign initiated in 2006 by the International Society of Nephrology and the International Federation of Kidney Foundations [1]. Its purpose is to raise awareness about the importance of kidneys to health and reduce the frequency and impact of kidney disease and its associated problems. This is because increasing numbers of people are being affected by Chronic kidney disease (CKD) which is a strong risk factor for development of cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of mortality worldwide [1-5]. WKD has become a strong tool for advocacy to government officials, healthcare providers and the general public but in most countries, the focus is on adults and not children [6]. Although some organizations involve children in educational activities, few include them in the screening programmes of WKD [7]. Yet renal disease is a significant cause of morbidity in children worldwide [8]. Estimates of CKD in many resource constrained countries are difficult to obtain because of the lack of renal registries [9]. In Nigeria, (the most populous nation in Sub-Saharan Africa), the incidence of CKD is estimated to occur in 7.5 children per million of the childhood population [10]. These are probably underestimates as they exclude children who have no access to hospital care. Unfortunately renal disease often goes undetected until the patient presents in End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) [9, 10]. This results in devastating social and financial consequences for the patients and their families as facilities for renal replacement therapy are limited, and too expensive for the majority of patients [3, 10]. Many Nigerian nephrologists recommend screening so as to detect kidney disease early and prevent or slow down progression to ESRD [11-13]. This is necessary because the general public has little awareness about kidney disease [14] and some people even use urine as treatment for illness [15]. WKD offers opportunities to educate communities which have little awareness about kidney disease and screen them for it. During the 2011 WKD, staff of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) Zaria, Nigeria carried out public enlightenment talks and screening of ad
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