Mysterious Disease is Killing Nicaraguan Sugar Cane Workers
A mysterious disease is killing Nicaraguan sugar cane workers and no one can understand the cause of this illness or how to prevent it. Thousands of other workers who are still alive, are quickly wasting away.
The mysterious disease affecting the Nicaraguan sugar cane workers has become the leading cause of deaths in hospital amongst men in El Salvador as well. Doctors are calling this illness a chronic kidney disease with unknown causes. This disease currently has no agreed upon universal name.
Heat, stress,chronic dehydration, painkillers, sugar consumption even volcanic ash are seen as possible factors which trigger the disease.
In Nicaragua, in the heartland of the sugar cane industry, Chichigalpa is home to the country’s largest sugar mill. It has been here, that the disease has hit the hardest and killed more sugar cane workers then anywhere else in the country and in Central America.
Cane cutting fathers and sons from the same family have died, and what seem to be healthy young men are quickly wasting away.
The World Bank and the Nicaraguan government have poured tens of millions of dollars into the sugar cane industry, but they now say that until the mystery of the illness is solved, there is not much they can do to prevent it.
Before each harvest a worker must take blood or urine test which will evaluate their kidneys and determine if the worker may return to the fields for the season’s harvest. In one neighborhood of Chichigalpa conservative studies show that one in every three men have the disease.
Radically different views as to how the illness is caused is creating tremendous conflict over the enormous cost of treating this disease and who should have to pay for the treatment.
Mario Amador who is the general manager of the National Committee of Nicaraguan Producers claims that the sugarcane industry has quadrupled over the last ten years and has become a $500 million dollar a year industry supplying sugar to the makers from everything from Coca Cola to Rum makers. (while the sugarcane workers are dying and wasting away dear readers!) Mr. Amador has publically stated that there is no relationship between the disease and the sugarcane industry!
“Nature can be very reluctant to give up its secrets”, said Daniel Brook, a researcher of the disease from Boston University and was selected to investigate the disease by a committee made up of both mill executives and sugarcane workers.
