At fi rst, COVID-19 was thought to be primarily a respiratory disease, progressing in some patients to serious respiratory symptoms, pneumonia, severe respiratory distress syndrome and even death. Later analysis revealed entire systems were compromised, affecting other vital organs, including the kidneys, and a correlation was observed between chronic kidney disease (CKD) and COVID-19 severity.[1,2] This correlation can be broken down into three underlying circumstances: 1) CKD as a risk factor for infection, particularly in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who are either in dialysis or have received a transplant; 2) persons in the active stages of SARS-CoV-2 infection whose healthy kidneys develop lesions, including acute kidney injury (AKI); and 3) the possibility of medium- and long-term renal sequelae.
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