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Climate change-fuelled natural disasters and chronic kidney disease: a call for action

Nature Reviews Nephrology volume 19, pages 141–142 (2023)Cite this article

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People with kidney disease are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of natural disasters and extreme weather events. As climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of these events, a robust response is needed to improve disaster preparedness and increase the resilience of these patients.

Climate change is fuelling increases in the frequency and severity of natural disasters and extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, floods, wildfires and extreme precipitation1. Although these increases are a global phenomenon, the health impacts vary substantially across geographic regions owing to the capacity of the local community to adapt to these threats, sociodemographic factors and vulnerabilities including pre-existing health conditions, such as chronic kidney disease (CKD), which currently affects >850 million people worldwide.

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Fig. 1: Kidney care preparedness for natural disasters using the Ready–Set–Go framework.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Robert P. Loeper (Fresenius Kidney Care, Waltham, MA) for his insight on disaster response.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Maryland School of Public Health, College Park, MD, USA

    Amir Sapkota

  2. Renal Research Institute, New York, NY, USA

    Peter Kotanko

  3. Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY, USA

    Peter Kotanko

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  1. Amir Sapkota
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  2. Peter Kotanko
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Correspondence to Amir Sapkota.

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Competing interests

P.K. is an employee of the Renal Research Institute, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fresenius Medical Care, and holds stock in Fresenius Medical Care. A.S. declares no competing interests.

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Sapkota, A., Kotanko, P. Climate change-fuelled natural disasters and chronic kidney disease: a call for action. Nat Rev Nephrol 19, 141–142 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41581-023-00682-4

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