Although advances in medical science and technology have long enabled us to have simple and easy methods of early detection of kidney disease and effective means of prevention and treatment, they have not been widely known and applied. While more attention has been paid to the prevention and treatment of common chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, an equally important and more widespread disease – chronic kidney disease – has been neglected. The world spends billions or even tens of billions of dollars every year just to treat uremia, the end stage of the disease, and both countries and individuals have to bear a huge financial burden. The kidney is one of the most important organs for maintaining the basic activities of life. Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is like a “stealthy killer”, accompanying hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, gout, cardio-cerebral vascular diseases and other common chronic diseases, and ultimately causing serious kidney damage. Due to our long-term neglect and underestimation of kidney disease, we turn a blind eye to this “silent killer” around us and miss the early diagnosis and the best time for treatment. In addition to the serious consequences of renal hypoplasia, the relationship between CKD and cardiovascular diseases is also quite close, the incidence of cardiovascular complications and mortality rate of CKD is much higher than that of the general population, and quite a lot of patients with CKD have already died of serious cardiovascular complications before entering end-stage renal disease. Therefore, chronic kidney disease itself is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes has the same important status, slow down the progress of kidney disease, to reduce the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications and mortality is particularly important. Emphasis on early screening The etiology of chronic kidney disease is diverse, and we need to pay special attention to people with risk factors for chronic kidney disease, which include: diabetes mellitus, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, systemic infections, >60 years old, family history of kidney disease, and recovery from acute renal failure, etc. Clinicians should pay special attention to these high-risk groups. Clinicians should perform regular urine protein and even urine microalbumin testing in these high-risk groups. The early onset of chronic kidney disease is often insidious, and some patients may show swelling, foamy urine, hypertension, etc. Many young patients are already in the advanced stage of renal failure when they visit the clinic, and have lost the opportunity to reverse the treatment. There are still a considerable number of patients who occasionally find hypertension, proteinuria and renal insufficiency during physical examination, so it is important to pay attention to the signals of early kidney disease in routine physical examination for early detection of kidney disease. The main manifestations of kidney disease include hypertension, proteinuria, hematuria and renal insufficiency. Patients with hypertension should be routinely tested for urinalysis except for renal hypertension, and thereafter, urine microalbumin should be reviewed regularly (annually) for early detection of hypertensive renal damage. Proteinuria is an important prognostic indicator of renal disease, and clinical tests include urine routine, urine microalbumin, 24-hour urine protein quantification, urine protein electrophoresis, etc. Different tests have different sensitivities and characteristics, and effective control of proteinuria can delay the progression of chronic kidney disease and reduce cardiovascular complications. Emphasis on patient education First, patients with chronic kidney disease should be educated to have a correct understanding of the disease. The vast majority of patients with CKD can maintain normal work and life without excessive anxiety and worry, but they should pay attention to avoiding factors that may aggravate kidney injury in daily life, such as infections, medications and so on. Secondly, not all patients need long-term medication, but regular annual checkups are very important to keep track of the changes in their condition. Thirdly, in addition to the treatment of the cause of chronic kidney disease, the current academic community also emphasizes the active control of blood pressure, proteinuria and the establishment of a comprehensive treatment system. Some drugs such as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor antagonists, etc., have been proven to be effective in reducing proteinuria and slowing down the progression of renal failure after a large number of clinical trials, and therefore have been widely used in the clinical practice of renal disease. In conclusion, with the rapid increase in the number of diabetes mellitus and hypertension and the accelerated aging of the population, chronic kidney disease (CKD) has become a serious social and public health problem and a heavy medical burden in China. Prevention and treatment of chronic kidney disease requires the attention of the whole society. Let’s take action to realize early detection and prevention of chronic kidney disease!