Island of the Widows

Thousands of men working in the Pacific Coast sugarcane fields of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and neighboring countries have been dying of chronic kidney disease, an ailment that in most parts of the developed world is a manageable condition. The condition has been exacerbated by difficult working conditions and poor access to timely health care, while governments and the sugar industry have done little in response. 

Key findings:* A wave of chronic kidney disease is devastating communities along the Pacific coast of Central America. Each year from 2005 to 2009, kidney failure has killed more than 2,800 men in that region, according to an analysis of global health data.* Victims are mostly men who conduct manual labor — mostly harvesting sugarcane. In El Salvador and Nicaragua over the last two decades, the number of men dying from kidney disease has risen fivefold.* The disease’s cause remains a mystery. A key contributing factor and potential culprit: dehydration and heat stress from strenuous labor. Researchers also suspect that exposure to an unknown toxin may trigger onset of the disease.* The World Bank issued more than $100 million in loans to Nicaragua’s sugar industry during the height of the epidemic without formal consideration of the kidney disease among its workers.* Central America accounts for one-fourth of the US's raw sugar imports. Those with the resources to solve the mystery — the U.S. and other wealthy nations and international development agencies — largely have resisted pleas to investigate. 

Thousands of sugar cane workers die as wealthy nations stall on solutionshttp://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/12/12/7578/thousands-sugar-cane-workers-die-wealthy-nations-stall-solutions 

Miles de trabajadores de caña de azúcar mueren ante escasez de acción oficialhttp://www.iwatchnews.org/node/7629/ 

Graphic: Kidney disease deaths in Central America, 2009http://www.iwatchnews.org/2012/01/19/7905/kidney-disease-deaths-central-america-2009 

Slideshow: a legacy of neglecthttp://www.iwatchnews.org/node/7624 

About this project: the reporting process behind 'Island of the Widows’http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/12/12/7586/about-project 

Costa Rica to study kidney disease afflicting sugarcane workershttp://www.iwatchnews.org/2012/02/06/8095/costa-rica-study-kidney-disease-afflicting-sugarcane-workers 

Project methodologyhttp://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/12/12/7587/methodology