Reflux nephropathy.

The whole subject of reflux nephropathy, which may affect 1 in every 300 of the white female population, and is the second most common disease of the kidney in the young, is still bedevilled by a lack of information regarding many of its important aspects, and the absence of any coordinated action to obtain it. What is required above all else is a means of its early detection in very young children, so that it may be prevented, at least in its more severe forms. Its financial cost can only be surmised, but the treatment of its end-stages is likely to be in the region of a hundred million dollars a year. The cost in wastage involving, as it does, young people, particularly females, is incalculable.