Sri Lanka, March 12 -- What is Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)? It is the gradual, progressive and irreversible loss of kidney function over several months to years. When someone has CKD, kidney function declines continuously and slowly. After a long period, it reduces to a stage where the kidneys stop working almost completely. This advanced and life-threatening stage of disease is called End Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD). In the early stages of CKD, signs and symptoms are minimal. Symptoms appear only when the disease is advanced. Common symptoms related to advanced CKD are weakness, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, swelling of the body and generalised itching. Most of these symptoms are non-specific, and unless kidney disease is suspe...