In his review article in the March 2015 edition ofCME, Prof. A M Meyers refers to chronic kidneydisease as 'an important disease group that threatenshealth'. I fully concur with this observation andwish to go a step further and assert that kidneydisease, together with other related non-communicable diseases(NCDs), poses not only a threat to health but also to theoverall development of South Africa (SA). It is now almost 4 yearssince the adoption of the Political Declaration of the High-levelMeeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Controlof Non-communicable Diseases (September 2011), where itwas emphatically stated that member States that have signed theDeclaration (including SA) 'Acknowledge that the global burdenand threat of non-communicable diseases constitutes one of themajor challenges for development in the twenty-first century,which undermines social and economic development throughoutthe world, and threatens the achievement of internationallyagreed development goals'.