RENAL FAILURE
A NEW STUDY LINKS A CHRONIC
KIDNEY DISEASE TO GLOBAL
CLIMATE CHANGE A LOOK
Described as Mesoamerican
NEPHROPATHY IN 2002
Killed 20,000 people
Study carried out in El Salvador and Nicaragua
THE SPREAD
Central America,India,Sri Lanka,Thailand,Egypt
PREVALENCE
Laborers on sugar plantations
High mortality rates among
Washington:A mysterious kidney that has killed over 20,000 people in Central America and has been observed in India and Sri Lanka may be caused by chronic,severe dehydration linked to globle climate change,a new study has found.
"This could be the first epidemic directly caused by global warming."said Richard J Johnson,professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine,US
"Some districts of Nicaragua have been called the "land of widows" due to the high mortally rates occurring among the male workers from chronic kidney disease" Johnson said.
The epidemic was first described in 2002 and has been dubbed Mesoamerican Nephropathy.It is most prevent among manual labourers on sugar cane plantations in this hotter,lower altitudes of Central America's Pacific Coast.
Researchers studied sugar cane workers in Nicaragua and El Salvador and found that the labourers routinely worked in conditions exceeding the recommended heat heat standards of the US.
Even though some of them drank up to two liters per hour,the researchers found they still suffered serious dehydration on a daily basis.
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