Healthcare practitioners are urging Filipinos to take early screening amid the rising cases of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the country.
The call was relayed during the renewal of partnership between Astrazeneca Philippines and Mercury Drug Philippines and Diabetes Philippines Wednesday, January 14, 2026.
The partnership will offer free kidney screenings under the ACT Now Program in select branches in the Greater Metro Manila area, reported GMA News Online.
Described by medical experts as the “silent threat,” CKD is a long-term condition where the person’s kidneys are damaged and loses its ability to filter waste and excess water from the blood. It is usually undetected during its early stages due to lack of symptoms, with doctors dividing symptoms into five stages ranging from mild to moderate loss of kidney function, moderate to severe, and complete kidney failure, or end-stage kidney disease.
Diabetes Philippines treasurer Dr. Rey Rosales said early testing is important to detect the signs of CKD. For starters, Rosales suggested testing for blood pressure, blood sugar, and body mass index (BMI), as well as Urine Albumin-Creatinine Ratio (UACR), a urine test that measures the amount of albumin in urine relative to creatinine.
“We can detect already whether there is already a sign of early kidney damage, because if it’s early, we can still prevent it from becoming the worst scenario and in fact, bring it back to normal,” Rosales said.
A December 21, 2025 article by Inquirer reported that an estimated 13 million Filipinos are affected by various stages of CKD, the majority of which remain to be undiagnosed.
In addition, nephrologists from the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) cited data from the Philippine Renal Disease Registry where an 57.44% of patients diagnosed with CKD are between the ages of 20 and 59 years old.
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This worries doctors considering that the number of young CKD patients have overtaken senior citizens with the same diagnosis at 40.82%.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest a lifestyle change to prevent the onset of CKD: lose weight, be physically active, quit smoking, avoid foods that are high in salt content, eat more fruits and vegetables, limit alcohol content, and religiously take your medications as prescribed by your physician.
