Chronic Kidney Disease Management in the Middle East and Africa: Concerns, Challenges, and Novel Approaches

Saeed Al-Ghamdi,1 Ali Abu-Alfa,2 Turki Alotaibi,3 Ali AlSaaidi,4 Abdulkareem AlSuwaida,5 Mustafa Arici,6 Tevfik Ecder,7 Ahmed F El Koraie,8 Mohamed Ghnaimat,9 Mohamed H Hafez,10 Mohamed Hassan,11 Tarik Sqalli12 1Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Kingdom Saudi of Arabia; 2Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon; 3Department of Transplant Nephrology, Hamed Al-Essa Organ Transplant Center, Kuwait City, Kuwait; 4Department of Nephrology, College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, Nephrology and Transplantation Center, Medical City Complex, Baghdad, Iraq; 5Department of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 6Department of Nephrology, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey; 7Department of Nephrology, Demiroglu Bilim University Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey; 8Department of Internal Medicine and Nephrology, Alexandria Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria, Egypt; 9Department of Nephrology Specialty Hospital, Amman, Jordan; 10Department of Nephrology and Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt; 11Department of Medical Affairs, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; 12Department of Nephrology, Moroccan Society of Nephrology, Casablanca, MoroccoCorrespondence: Mohamed Hassan, Department of Medical Affairs, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Tel +971 508187944, Email mohamedhas@msn.comAbstract: The burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and other comorbidities, such as hypertension and diabetes, which increase the risk of developing CKD, is on the rise in the Middle East and Africa. The Middle East and Africa CKD (MEA-CKD) steering committee, comprising eminent healthcare specialists from the Middle East and Africa, was formed to identify and propose steps to address the gaps in the management of CKD in these regions. The current article lists the MEA-CKD steering committee meeting outcomes and ev