CKD of Unknown Etiology in Agricultural Communities (CURE Consortium)

In the US and Europe, chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common mostly in older persons (age>60), affects men and women equally, and is primarily due to diabetes and hypertension. An increasingly common form of early-onset CKD is affecting young individuals around the world, particularly Central America and South Asia. The disease has been termed “CKD of unknown etiology”, or “CKDu”, because its cause is unknown and cannot be attributed to the classic risk factors observed in the developed world. The disease appears to affect men at younger ages, particularly in agricultural communities.

The NIH/NIDDK launched the CURE Consortium to investigate the cause(s) of CKDu through an ambitious multi-center study involving field epidemiology sites inNicaragua, El Salvadaor, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, and India; the Human Health Exposure Analysis Resource (HHEAR), a Scientific Data Coordinating Center, and a Renal Science Core.

Drs. Waikar, Bhalla, and Friedman are multi-PI’s of the Renal Science Core, which is responsible for guiding the scientific and clinical approach taken by the Consortium.