Nicaragua’s chronic kidney disease is widespread epidemic, in some areas it affects one man out of three, often fatal. Doctors call different reasons diseases – from agricultural chemicals to global warming, but none of them is yet possible to confirm.
A photo from open sources
During the harvest, when the exhausted workers spent 7 days a week for chopping sugarcane, signs of fatal the disease was hard to see at first. When the season is over people began to notice that the players on the baseball court were moving, half asleep, and in the evenings they rise high temperature.
“This is Mosquito, he recently died,” says Arnulfo Telles Aguilera showing the photograph. – This is my brother Danilo, he too dead. ”
A painful disease called chronic kidney disease for unknown reasons “(CKDu), in recent 10 years claimed the lives of 20 thousand men in Nicaragua. She is merciless like to mature men and young men, New York tells Times
It is still unknown what causes this disease. Assumptions a lot: overheating in the sun, chronic dehydration, toxic chemicals, painkillers, excessive sugar and even volcanic dust. But doctors agree on one thing: men are more likely die where sugar production is concentrated, in particular in Chichigalpa, where the largest sugar factory in the world. People say the water in the fields is contaminated with something.
“My husband died at 6 in the morning, our neighbor passed away at 2, on the next day, three more people died, “- says 37-year-old Gilma, mother of five children.
Nicaraguan government, sugar factory owners and even The World Bank, which has invested millions of dollars in sugar production, declare that they are unable to take measures to prevent the disease, until its causes are known.
Former San Antonio factory workers affected by the disease, filed a lawsuit against the World Bank, which issued a loan to their company $ 55 million. Both the bank and the factory management were aware of the catastrophic the situation of the workers, but did nothing to help them. Before at each harvest, workers are tested to determine whether they are still suitable for work in the field. Workers themselves drink tamarind juice and linseed oil and try to avoid the strong sun so that improve your analyzes. Otherwise, their families will be left without means to subsistence. “If you’re sick, they just say goodbye and they don’t help, “says Aguilera.
“I think many are involved here,” says a Washington lawyer. Kristen Genovese helping workers file a lawsuit – Government also not left out. ”
One of the possible causes of the disease is called herbicides. However these substances are used in many regions of the world, but mysterious deaths are observed only in Nicaragua and in another “sugar” country – Sri Lanka.
Mario Amador, Head of the National Association sugar producers denies workers’ deaths related directly with production. According to business owners, the taxes they pay to the treasury must go to retirement and insurance for sick workers and their families. So far the reason is for sure not established, they refuse to take responsibility.
“When you’re only concerned with avoiding obligations, finding out the cause is almost impossible, “says Jason Glaser, President of the La Isla Foundation, which deals with the study of chronic kidney disease.
Arnulfo Aguilera passed away three weeks after The New York Times correspondent talked to him.
The sun
