The Growing Burden of Chronic Kidney Disease in Pakistan

A Pakistani tailor, the sole breadwinner for a family of eight, had received diagnoses of type 2 diabetes and hypertension at 31 years of age. For the next 15 years, although he felt well and visited his primary care practitioner twice a year, his conditions were poorly controlled. When he was 46, he began to notice fatigue and loss of appetite. After several weeks of the gradual progression of these symptoms, the man sought medical attention and was found to have a serum creatinine concentration of 5.2 mg per deciliter (460 μmol per liter), a blood urea nitrogen concentration of . . .