Kidney disease rates grow and barriers to care remain

The number of people with end-stage kidney disease has gone up 42 percent from 2000 to 2019, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That means at least 760,000 people are in need of dialysis or a kidney transplant to survive. 

There are a few reasons for this jump, said Julia Lewis, professor of nephrology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The main causes are diabetes and high blood pressure, which are simply happening at higher rates over the last couple of decades.