Karnataka sees kidney death toll surge to record high
Over the past decade, Karnataka has witnessed a dramatic surge in fatalities linked to genitourinary disorders, with the number climbing from 5,940 in 2016 to 18,730 in 2025, as revealed by the latest Medical Certification of Cause of Death (MCCD) report.
Steep Climb Post-2018
The upward trend accelerated significantly after 2018, with fatalities in this category jumping from 7,402 in 2019 to 9,884 in 2021, then to 13,569 in 2022, 17,689 in 2024, and finally reaching 18,730 in 2025.
Last year, genitourinary disorders were responsible for 11.8% of all medically certified deaths in Karnataka, ranking as the third leading cause of death in the state, following circulatory and respiratory diseases, according to The Times of India.
This category encompasses more than just kidney ailments, including conditions affecting the urinary system and certain reproductive system diseases.
Kidney Failure Dominates Statistics
In 2025, kidney failure was the primary cause of death within this category, with 14,960 cases recorded. These fatalities constituted nearly 80% of all genitourinary-related deaths and 9.4% of the state’s total medically certified deaths.
Among these cases, 9,530 were men, while 5,430 were women.
Elderly individuals were disproportionately affected, with those aged 45 and above accounting for 87.8% of kidney failure deaths. Specifically, 5,648 deaths, or 37.7%, occurred in people aged 70 and older.
Dr. Deepak Chitralli, a nephrologist at Manipal Hospital in Yeshwantpur, suggested to The Times of India that this increase could be attributed to various risk factors, such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and lifestyle changes. He emphasized that uncontrolled diabetes can harm the kidneys, potentially leading to kidney failure. Additionally, he highlighted the interconnectedness of kidney and cardiovascular diseases, where one condition can exacerbate the other.
Dr. Chitralli also warned against the unsupervised consumption of protein supplements, especially among younger individuals. He noted that some unregulated products might contain kidney-damaging substances, posing long-term health risks.
Data Constraints
The MCCD data should be interpreted with caution, as it only includes deaths with a certified medical cause. In 2025, approximately 1.6 lakh deaths were medically certified in Karnataka, representing 28.2% of all registered deaths in the state, as reported by The Times of India.
Consequently, these figures do not encompass all deaths in Karnataka and cannot be used to infer that genitourinary or kidney-related deaths across the entire population have increased at the same rate.
The Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India classifies MCCD as part of the nation’s Vital Statistics System, which gathers medically certified data on death causes. However, the quality of medical certification can vary across different regions.
A 2025 study protocol from the ICMR-National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research pointed out that many deaths occur outside healthcare facilities and may lack a medically certified cause.
