The transplant gap keeps more blacks waiting for kidneys

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An occasional series about chronic diseases and their impact on urban communities.

Walk into virtually any urban dialysis center, and chances are a disproportionate number of patients tethered to the machines will be African-American.

The preferred treatment for kidney failure is an organ transplant. But although African-Americans suffer from kidney disease at higher rates than whites, they are less likely to be referred for transplants, less likely to be placed on a waiting list and less likely to get kidneys once on the list, according to a large body of research.

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The result is a glaring racial disparity in which many black kidney patients remain on dialysis, a treatment associated with lower quality of life and higher death rates.

Chicago Tribune