La Resolución de Salud Renal de la OMS y el primer Día Mundial del Riñón oficialmente reconocido: una agenda de equidad con raíces latinoamericanas
Randall Lou-Meda1,2 and Vicente Sánchez-Polo3,4*
A resolution of the World Health Organization (WHO) is an agreement adopted by the World Health Assembly (WHA), composed of the ministers of health of Member States. These resolutions are not merely symbolic statements: they establish political mandates at the highest level, set technical priorities, mobilize resources, and generate accountability commitments. Throughout history, some resolutions have represented true turning points. The resolution that led to the eradication of smallpox¹ transformed global public health, demonstrating that collective action can overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges. Similarly, resolutions on universal immunization² laid the foundation for expanded vaccination programs that now save millions of children’s lives each year.
In 2025, the adoption of the Resolution on Kidney Health by the WHO marks a comparable milestone for the nephrology community. For the first time, Kidney Health occupies an explicit place on the global agenda of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), with a clear mandate to strengthen prevention, early identification, comprehensive treatment, and equitable access to kidney replacement therapies (KRT), including transplantation³. This global achievement has deep Latin American roots. The Resolution on Kidney Health is the result of a deliberative, technical, and political process in which Latin America has demonstrated voice, leadership, and vision. For decades, the region has witnessed the growing burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD), but it has also been a source of innovative responses through clinical practice, research, public policy development, and multilateral cooperation⁴.
CKD is one of the fastest-growing NCDs worldwide and represents a disproportionate burden for developing countries. Gaps in access to early diagnosis, nephroprotective drugs, dialysis, and transplantation remain profound in Latin America⁵. The WHO Resolution provides a strategic framework to address these inequities. By explicitly recognizing the need to integrate Kidney Health into national NCD plans, strengthen primary care, improve health information systems, and promote equitable access to cost-effective therapies such as kidney transplantation, it establishes concrete tools to transform health systems³.
Our Sociedad Latinoamericana de Nefrología e Hipertensión (SLANH) has played a key coordinating role in advancing the principles of the Resolution, fostering technical and political dialogue around Kidney Health as a regional priority.
The SLANH Congress Guayaquil 2025 consolidated this effort by promoting the development of a Kidney Health Strategy–Action Plan, designed to engage with Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS) and align the regional agenda with the global process. This commitment was also reflected in active participation at the High-Level Meeting of Ministers of Health of the Sistema de Integración Centroamericana (SICA/COMISCA), held in November 2025 in Antigua Guatemala, where the integration of kidney transplantation into the comprehensive management of CKD was promoted and the need to strengthen registries, regulatory frameworks, and regional cooperation was reaffirmed. Likewise, Member States of the Ibero-American Network/Council on Donation and Transplantation proposed expanding and aligning the 2019–2030 regional strategy with the new WHO Resolution, incorporating Kidney Health as an integrated and sustainable axis.
In this historic context, the recent Resolution adopted by the OMS on Kidney Health not only positions kidney disease as a priority on the global public health agenda, but also officially recognizes World Kidney Day, granting it political and institutional endorsement that amplifies its scope and impact. Official recognition of World Kidney Day by the OMS transforms an awareness campaign into an institutional platform supported by the multilateral system, enabling dialogue with ministries of health, parliaments, and funding agencies. In Latin America, where social and health inequities continue to shape access to treatment, this new legitimacy must be leveraged by the nephrology community to increase public awareness, strengthen political commitment, and promote global solidarity around Kidney Health.
The adoption of the Resolution on Kidney Health is not the endpoint, but the beginning of a new phase. It is now incumbent upon the kidney care community to use the officially recognized World Kidney Day as a catalyst for public policy, intersectoral dialogue, and social mobilization in favor of Kidney Health. We call upon the SLANH community to deepen its commitment to ongoing multilateral efforts, including kidney health promotion, joint procurement mechanisms, strengthening of registries, and regional technical cooperation, and to translate the principles of the Resolution into concrete actions that reduce inequities and expand access to quality services.
SLANH’s vision of providing optimal care to all people in Latin America requires that this historic moment translate into tangible outcomes: effective prevention, early identification, timely treatment, and equitable access to kidney transplantation. Today more than ever, Kidney Health is a global priority with Latin American roots. History offers us a unique opportunity. It is up to us to transform it into lasting change—because we are all SLANH!
References
World Health Organization. The global eradication of smallpox: final report of the Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication, Geneva, December 1979. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1980. Available at: https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/39253
World Health Organization. Expanded Programme on Immunization. Weekly Epidemiol Rec. 1984;59(14):101-104. Available at: https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/224900
World Health Organization. Reducing the burden of noncommunicable diseases through promotion of kidney health and strengthening prevention and control of kidney disease. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2025 May 27. Available at: https://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA78/A78_R6-en.pdf
Lou-Meda R, Depine SA, Burgos-Calderón R, Luyckx VA. From the field to the assembly hall: the history of the kidney health resolution. Kidney Int. 2025;108(6):962-968. doi: 10.1016/j.kint.2025.08.023
GBD 2023 Chronic Kidney Disease Collaborators. Global, regional, and national burden of chronic kidney disease in adults, 1990-2023, and its attributable risk factors: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023. Lancet. 2025;406(10518):2461-2482. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01853-7
Nefrología Latinoamericana
Correspondence:
Vicente Sánchez-Polo
E-mail: [email protected]
Available online: 09-03-2026
Nefro Latinoam. (ahead of print)
www.nefrologialatinoamericana.com
Date of reception: 17-02-2026
Date of acceptance: 19-02-2026
DOI: 10.24875/NEFRO.M26000076
How to cite: Lou-Meda R, Sánchez-Polo V. The WHO Kidney health resolution and the First Officially Recognized World Kidney Day: an equity agenda with Latin American roots. Nefro Latinoam. 2026;23:1-2. doi: 10.24875/NEFRO.M26000076
2444-9032/© 2026 Sociedad Latinoamericana de Nefrología e Hipertensión. Published by Permanyer. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
