COVID-19 highlighted racial inequality in US medical care, including kidney disease: Crystal A. Gadegbeku-cleveland.com

Cleveland-As a nephrologist, I saw first-hand the effects of the COVID-19 virus on the color community.

As a black doctor, I write that I’m angry about this sad, frustrated, and even another illness that affects dark-skinned people like me.

It is well documented that African Americans are at increased risk of COVID-19 and related complications and mortality. Black Americans make up 13% of the U.S. population, but according to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, White Americans are 2.0 times more likely to be hospitalized and die of COVID-19 than White Americans. There is.

Here in Ohio, Black Ohio accounts for about 11% of state COVID-19 cases and about 13% of state COVID-19 deaths.

Unequal care did not begin with COVID-19.

The disproportionate burden of kidney disease is another powerful example of the need to address health inequality and find policy solutions that affect so many Americans.

More than 37 million Americans have kidney disease and more than 750,000 have kidney failure. However, like COVID-19, kidney disease harms Americans unequally. Black Americans are 3.7 times more likely to develop kidney failure than White Americans, 1.5 times more likely than Hispanic Americans.

The intersection of the two illnesses is causing indescribable turmoil. Americans on dialysis are more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than other Medicare recipients, and Americans hospitalized with COVID-19 are almost three times more likely to die. As a result, blacks and Hispanic Americans who are susceptible to kidney disease and are often on dialysis are prone to COVID-19 infection and death from the virus. In addition, a recent national survey of US veterans with no history of kidney disease hospitalized with COVID-19 showed that approximately 30% of patients experienced acute kidney injury.

The Biden Harris administration can have a double impact on both systemic racism in health care and the unacceptable state of care for patients with kidney disease. The guideline recipe is as follows:

・ Support for research funded by the government. Kidney disease affects about 10% of the US population. Medicare spends about $ 120 billion annually on the care of patients with kidney disease, while the National Institutes of Health spent only $ 671 million on kidney research in 2020. Congress needs to approve $ 100 million for the COVID-19 study at the National Institute of Diabetes and Gastroenterology. Kidney disease to fight this disease.

・ Improve care. A wholly-owned Kidney X is a public-private partnership between the American Society of Nephrology and the U.S. Department of Health that has provided $ 200 million to promote innovation and provide treatment options to patients with long-deferred kidney disease. ..

・ Deliver to the color community.Focus on the care of a colored community, including a kidney transplant system that improves access for all patients, standardizes care decisions, and supports care models that help professionals prevent renal failure

Could you?

Yes, it is. Recent support for advances in kidney care, such as the Comprehensive Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage Act for Kidney Transplant Patients, is highly bipartisan. Congress needs to accelerate this by working with the Biden Harris administration to combat systematic racism in the medical sector.

Our church has seen indescribable devastation. The tireless efforts of health care workers have contained the impact, but the national health system, which has been chronically and embarrassed to deal with serious inequality, is not yet in place.

The promising COVID-19 vaccine, a new focus on health inequality, and innovations in kidney care give us hope. That hope must inspire us to take a bold step towards progress.

Life depends on it.

Dr. Crystal A. Gadegbeck is a councilor of the American Society of Nephrology and the new president of the Cleveland Clinic’s Kidney Division.

Do you have anything to say about this?

* Write a letter to the editor who is considering publishing the printed matter.

* If you have any general questions about the editorial board, or comments or corrections to this opinion section, please email the following opinion director, Elizabeth Sullivan. [email protected]

[vi] US kidney data system. USRDS Annual Data Report 2020: Epidemiology of kidney disease in the United States. National Institute of Health, National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Disease, Bethesda, Maryland, 2020.

[vi] https://report.nih.gov/categorical_spending.aspx

Source link