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To highlight the needs of people with kidney disease, organizations from across our state have banded together to create the Illinois Kidney Care Alliance (IKCA), a coalition of health advocates and professionals, community and patient groups, and providers and businesses. The coalition will focus on raising awareness of the needs of people who suffer from End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), a condition also known as kidney failure. The stark fact is that people whose kidneys no longer function properly have only two options for survival: dialysis or a kidney transplant.

Currently, more than 650,000 Americans suffer from kidney failure, including over 30,000 in Illinois. Of these, about 70 percent are on life-sustaining dialysis, while the rest are able to survive with a functioning kidney transplant. The incidence rate of ESRD is expected to rise in the U.S. over the next decade – and is higher among African-Americans, Latinos and people of color than among whites.

Kidney disease in its early stages often has no symptoms and therefore remains undetected until it has reached an advanced stage. For this reason, some call it a “silent disease.”

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