Johanna Nicholson reported this story on Monday, May 23, 2016 12:45:00

ELEANOR HALL: An estimated 1.7 million Australians are living with chronic kidney disease, but 90 per cent of them are not aware of it.



Kidney Health Australia's annual 'State of the Nation' report says 60 Australians die from kidney related disease every day.



The report is calling for new health checks to alert those who don't know that they're sick.



Johanna Nicholson reports.



JOHANNA NICHOLSON: Ward Kane was shocked to find out he had advanced kidney disease.



WARD KANE: Being a 40-year-old and being a male, you're just sort of fairly complacent about your health. And it wasn't until it was actually pointed out by some friends that I wasn't looking the best and I should go and do something about it, yeah.



JOHANNA NICHOLSON: But he'd left it too late and had end stage renal failure.



WARD KANE: It just sort of came as a big shock. Knowing that I had to do dialysis and then sort of not being able to work full time, yeah that certainly was a good blow to the head.



JOHANNA NICHOLSON: Ward Kane had a kidney transplant in 2011, but it was rejected earlier this year. He's now on dialysis three days a week and wishes he'd taken better care of himself as a younger man.



WARD KANE: Don't take your health for granted, be proactive about it.



JOHANNA NICHOLSON: 1.7 million Australian adults have signs of chronic kidney disease.



But Kidney Health Australia's 'State of the Nation' report has found that around 1.3 million of them don't know they have a problem.



CEO, Anne Wilson says that's because there are often no symptoms.



ANNE WILSON: Chronic kidney disease is known as the silent killer because you can lose up to 90 per cent of kidney function without knowing that you have it.



JOHANNA NICHOLSON: The report revealed 20 kidney disease hot spots around the country.



The Illawarra and Shoalhaven regions on the New South Wales south coast are number one on the list, with 19.5 per cent of the population living with signs of the disease.



Sydney's inner west and the West Moreton-Oxley area in Queensland also ranked high.



Anne Wilson says there are many risk factors.



ANNE WILSON: People that have got high blood pressure, people with diabetes, people with a family history of kidney disease or heart disease, people over 50, people who smoke, those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent and people who are obese are at increased risk.



JOHANNA NICHOLSON: Fifty-nine thousand Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders live with signs of chronic kidney disease, and they're more than twice as likely to be suffering from it than non-Indigenous people.



Kidney specialist with the Menzies School of Health Research, Professor Alan Cass, says a mix of factors contribute to this.



ALAN CASS: From in utero, so maternal health, child health, access to the most effective preventative health services and then when there are high rates of diabetes, obesity and blood pressure in younger peoples, this means that the burden of kidney disease becomes extreme.



And we're facing this mix of social, health and environmental factors leading to an extreme burden of kidney disease in remote areas.



JOHANNA NICHOLSON: The Kidney Health Australia report found that one person dies from kidney related disease every 25 minutes and that dialysis is now the number one reason for hospital admission.



The problem is costing Australia $4 billion annually.



Anne Wilson says when fighting kidney disease, early detection is key.



ANNE WILSON: If we want to ultimately stem the number of people who get chronic kidney disease and then go on into end stage, then we've got to catch it early.



Which is why one of the things that Kidney Health Australia is advocating for in the incoming government, whoever that's going to be, is the implementation of an integrated health check that checks for heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes in at-risk populations.



ELEANOR HALL: That's Kidney Health Australia CEO ending that report by Johanna Nicholson.