NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, March 16, 2015

Three leading health organisations have set medical researchers a challenge to make an affordable dialysis machine capable of using non-purified water as new figures show more people will experience terminal kidney failure.

Medical researchers at The George Institute of Global Health estimate somewhere between five and 10 million people in the world need dialysis right now.

According to the institute’s Australian director Professor Vlado Perkovic only a small portion of that number have access to it.

“Somewhere between half and three quarters of all people with kidney failure around the world never get the chance to receive dialysis and are doomed to die of their disease,” he told PM’s Mark Colvin.

The group’s research, titled Worldwide Access to Treatment for End-stage Kidney Disease: A Systematic Review, shows that by 2030, the number of people on dialysis is predicted to double to about 5.4 million, with most of the growth in Asia.

The figures imply an urgent need for affordable dialysis, with current costs ranging from $US20,000 to $US100,000 for each person, each year.