You can walk around looking perfectly healthy while your kidneys are quietly deteriorating.
OBLONG MEDIA GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE PUBLIC HEALTH ALERT.
The disturbing images accompanying this report should provoke and trouble every Nigerian.
They reportedly show people suffering from severe kidney disease and seeking assistance with the enormous costs of dialysis and treatment. However, Oblong Media has not independently verified the identities, diagnoses or circumstances of every person pictured, so we will not present those social media claims as established medical fact.
But the larger warning behind the pictures is very real.
Kidney disease is increasingly becoming a major public health challenge, and one of its most frightening characteristics is that it can progress silently.
The World Health Organization warns that kidney disease is frequently asymptomatic until its later stages. By the time symptoms such as swollen legs, extreme fatigue, nausea, breathlessness or persistent itching become obvious, substantial kidney damage may already have occurred.
This means that waiting until you “feel sick” can be a dangerous strategy.
THE TWO ENEMIES MANY PEOPLE ARE WALKING AROUND WITH
Two of the most important causes of chronic kidney disease are extraordinarily common:
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE AND DIABETES.
WHO identifies hypertension as a major cause of chronic kidney disease and reports that approximately 1.4 billion people worldwide were living with hypertension in 2024, while only slightly more than one in five had it under control.
Diabetes is equally dangerous.
Persistently elevated blood glucose damages small blood vessels, including the delicate filtering structures inside the kidneys. WHO explicitly lists kidney failure among the major complications of diabetes.
That is why the man who says:
“My BP doesn’t disturb me.”
or
“My sugar is only a little high.”
may be making a potentially catastrophic mistake.
Hypertension is called a silent killer precisely because many people experience no obvious warning symptoms.
BUT LET US CORRECT ANOTHER DANGEROUS CLAIM
Some circulating messages say the leading causes of kidney failure are “not agbo or even fake drugs.”
That statement is too sweeping and medically unsafe.
Hypertension and diabetes are indeed major causes of chronic kidney disease, but they are certainly not the only causes.
WHO also identifies cardiovascular disease, glomerulonephritis, genetic disorders, infections, and certain drugs and toxins among recognised causes of chronic kidney disease.
And fake or contaminated medicines absolutely cannot be dismissed.
WHO estimates that at least one in ten medicines in low and middle income countries is substandard or falsified. Such products can cause poisoning, treatment failure, serious illness and death.
WHO has even issued alerts about contaminated medicines containing toxic substances capable of causing acute kidney injury and death.
The sensible message therefore isn’t:
“Agbo causes kidney failure.”
Nor should it be:
“Agbo doesn’t cause kidney failure.”
The responsible message is:
DO NOT PUT UNKNOWN SUBSTANCES INTO YOUR BODY.
Traditional preparations vary enormously. Some may contain pharmacologically active compounds; others may contain substances that are toxic to the kidneys, interact with prescription medicines, or have unknown concentrations.
“Natural” does not automatically mean harmless.
NEVER ABANDON YOUR BP OR DIABETES MEDICATION FOR HERBAL REMEDIES
This deserves to be written in capital letters:
DO NOT STOP PRESCRIBED BLOOD PRESSURE OR DIABETES MEDICATION BECAUSE SOMEONE PROMISES THAT A HERBAL MIXTURE, SUPPLEMENT, PRAYER PRODUCT OR SOCIAL MEDIA REMEDY WILL “CURE” YOU.
Uncontrolled hypertension damages kidneys.
Uncontrolled diabetes damages kidneys.
And suddenly discontinuing important medication without medical supervision can have serious consequences.
I tried discontinuing my BP drugs once and had a severe stroke I have miraculously recovered from. I’m talking out of experience
At the same time, people taking long term medication deserve proper medical monitoring. Kidney function, medication doses and drug combinations should be reviewed by qualified clinicians where appropriate.
KNOW YOUR NUMBERS BEFORE YOUR KIDNEYS START CRYING FOR HELP
One of the biggest lessons from this crisis must be PREVENTION AND EARLY DETECTION.
If you have hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, a family history of kidney failure or other significant risk factors, discuss kidney screening with your doctor.
Two particularly important assessments are:
1. Blood creatinine with estimated glomerular filtration rate – eGFR
This helps estimate how effectively the kidneys are filtering the blood.
2. Urine albumin to creatinine ratio – UACR
This can identify abnormal leakage of albumin into urine, sometimes before advanced kidney dysfunction becomes apparent.
Current KDIGO guidance for diabetes emphasises using both UACR and estimated GFR, rather than relying on one measure alone.
Do not simply ask:
“Doctor, are my kidneys okay?”
Ask:
“What is my creatinine?”
“What is my eGFR?”
“Have we checked urine albumin/UACR?”
“What is my blood pressure?”
“What is my blood glucose/HbA1c?”
Know your numbers.
DO NOT IGNORE THE WARNING SIGNS
Advanced kidney disease can present with:
swelling of the feet, ankles or legs;
persistent fatigue or weakness;
shortness of breath;
nausea or vomiting;
muscle cramps;
persistent itching.
But here is the critical point:
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DEVELOP THESE SYMPTOMS BEFORE HAVING KIDNEY DISEASE.
WHO specifically warns that kidney disease may remain symptomless until late in its progression.
That is why screening high risk people matters.
DON’T TURN PAINKILLERS INTO DAILY SWEETS
People should also be cautious about prolonged or excessive use of medicines capable of harming the kidneys.
Don’t repeatedly self medicate simply because a medicine can be bought without difficulty.
Don’t combine prescription medicines, herbal mixtures and supplements without telling your doctor or pharmacist what you are taking.
And don’t buy medicines from dubious or unregulated sources.
The global problem of falsified and substandard medicines is serious enough that WHO and the African Medicines Agency announced a new framework in 2026 aimed at strengthening access to quality-assured health products across Africa.
AND NOW TO THE BIGGER NIGERIAN FAILURE
There is something fundamentally wrong when kidney disease is discovered only when a family is desperately looking for millions of naira for dialysis.
Dialysis should not be our principal kidney strategy.
Prevention must come first.
Nigeria needs a national KNOW YOUR KIDNEYS programme integrated into primary healthcare.
Blood pressure checks should become routine.
Diabetes screening must become commonplace.
People already diagnosed with hypertension and diabetes should have structured follow up.
Kidney function testing for high risk patients should not be treated as an exotic luxury available only to affluent Nigerians.
Primary healthcare centres should be able to identify vulnerable patients and refer them before they reach catastrophic kidney failure.
Because once somebody requires repeated dialysis, the battle has moved from relatively inexpensive prevention to extraordinarily expensive survival.
GOVERNMENT MUST ALSO CONFRONT THE ECONOMICS OF KIDNEY FAILURE
A Nigerian family should not have to sell land, empty retirement savings, organise WhatsApp fundraising and beg strangers on social media merely to keep a relative alive for another week.
Kidney disease exposes one of the cruellest weaknesses of a predominantly out of pocket healthcare system:
A disease can destroy the patient’s body while its treatment simultaneously destroys the family’s finances.
Government health insurance must therefore move beyond political slogans and minimal packages.
Preventive screening for hypertension, diabetes and kidney disease should receive much greater emphasis, while sustainable access to dialysis and transplantation must form part of serious tertiary healthcare planning.
OBLONG MEDIA KIDNEY CHALLENGE
THIS WEEK, DO FIVE THINGS FOR YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY:
CHECK YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE.
CHECK YOUR BLOOD SUGAR.
IF YOU ARE AT RISK, ASK ABOUT CREATININE/eGFR.
ASK WHETHER YOU NEED A URINE ALBUMIN/UACR TEST.
STOP CONSUMING UNKNOWN MEDICINES, HERBAL MIXTURES AND SUPPLEMENTS WITHOUT understanding what they contain and discussing potentially harmful combinations with a qualified professional.
And please share this warning with your family WhatsApp group.
Send it to your old school association.
Send it to your village group.
Send it to your church or mosque group.
Send it to your office.
Send it to that relative who has been taking hypertension medication inconsistently because “I feel fine.”
Your kidneys can lose function without first giving you dramatic pain.
High blood pressure can be silently damaging them.
Diabetes can be silently damaging them.
Unregulated drugs or toxic substances can damage them.
And discovering kidney disease early can profoundly change the trajectory.
Nigeria should not wait until thousands more citizens are sitting beside dialysis machines before we start talking seriously about kidney health.
CHECK BEFORE YOU BECOME SICK.
KNOW YOUR NUMBERS.
PROTECT YOUR KIDNEYS.
SHARE THIS MESSAGE, IT COULD PROMPT SOMEONE TO GET TESTED BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.
OBLONG MEDIA GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE
Public Health
Awareness
Prevention
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#KidneyFailureAlert #ProtectYourKidneys #KnowYourNumbers #KidneyHealthNigeria #Hypertension #Diabetes #PreventKidneyDisease #OblongMediaGlobalIntelligence
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