Chronic kidney disease, or CKD, is a scourge of the rich world generally caused by diabetes, high blood pressure, or obesity. An alternative form of CKD however, is finding it’s way into the developing world. Known as chronic kidney disease of undetermined causes, or CKDu, victims are mainly agricultural workers, low wage earners, and rural folk. This growing epidemic is thought to be occupational and environmental, not lifestyle caused, and it’s creating an alarming new medical problem that doctors around the world are barely aware of, have not figured out the cause of, or found a way to prevent it.
In Central America alone, more than 20,000 people have died or contracted this illness over the past two decades. Many similar cases in other countries like India, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, and more, have highlighted the fact that this is a global epidemic. Often by the time it is diagnosed in a patient, it’s too late. Sufferers of the disease face a shortened life, unable to work or support their families and surviving only on dialysis.
These films set in Nicaragua, India, and Peru, are not only meant to raise awareness, but are also a call to arms for researchers, doctors, and scientists around the world to come together and find the cause, develop cures and find prevention measures for this devastating disease. To combat this global epidemic, action and research are required on a global level.
SHORT DOCUMENTARY SERIES
SILENT EPIDEMIC
When we filmed Mary Pacherres, she had been on dialysis for eight years to treat her chronic kidney disease, which is impacting rural communities throughout Peru. Both of her brothers died from the same disease. While the exact causes are still unknown, researchers speculate that heat stress and dehydration are the main culprits along with exposure to agricultural chemicals, unsafe working conditions, and the effects of climate change. Health workers are in the process of conducting voluntary screenings throughout the country in an effort to treat patients before the illness becomes terminal.
WITH EVERY BREATH
DOCUMENTARY SHORT
In the vast rice fields of Andhra Pradesh, Southeastern India, a form of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKDu) is killing workers and leaving their families in a state of economic despair. The causes of the disease range from chronic dehydration, pesticide contamination and heavy metals in the water sources. This disease is being investigated throughout the world, from Central America to the Middle east, and now India. Hidden Under the Indian Sun follows a young student, Maheshwari, whose father is on dialysis and now unable to work digging wells in the rice fields since being diagnosed with CKDu. Her dedication to her studies and her dreams of becoming an engineer are threatened, as she is duty bound to care for her father. Her story illustrates the collateral impact of this disease on families, particularly the younger generations.
Not far away lies another farming village, Balliputtuga, which has 126 widows due to the same nefarious disease. Here, a middle aged woman, Lakshmi, recounts the death of her husband and her necessity to work the fields to feed her family, even as she has developed the disease as well. Her story is emblematic of the toll this disease takes on community's livelihoods and survival.
As Indian researchers begin to join a global alliance to investigate this epidemic, in order to prevent it, thousands of families in Southeastern India contend with the consequences of this hidden disease.
HIDDEN UNDER THE INDIAN SUN
DOCUMENTARY SHORT
In Nicaragua, the average life span of men who harvest sugarcane is 49 years. At the root of these early deaths is an epidemic known as Chronic Kidney Disease of non-traditional causes (CKDnt). In the town of Chichigalpa, often called the “Island of Widows,” one out of every 3 men, mostly cane workers, is in end-stage renal failure from a disease that is both a public health crisis and a social injustice. In Central America alone, more than 10,000 sugarcane workers have become sick or have died from this illness in the past twenty years.
The Nicaraguan government and the local industry-dominating sugar company mutes this issue by intimidating workers and advocates alike. Research on the subject of CKDnt has indicated that repeated dehydration, severe heat, and environmental toxins might play a huge part in the rising death toll among sugarcane workers. Not only because multiple countries like southern Mexico, Ecuador, Sri Lanka, India and other tropical or subtropical countries, are battling CKDnt, is this disease of global concern. After all, nearly everyone on earth consumes sugar in some form, and the United States alone imports a large portion of Nicaragua’s sugar exports.
DOCUMENTARY SHORT
UNDER CANE
PRESS
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS | Can Sugarcane Workers Be Saved With Simple Water and Shade?
| In Peru, Kidney Failure is On the Rise. No One Knows Why.
THE ATLANTIC | The Mysterious Kidney Disease That Became a Public Health Epidemic
SCIENCE MAGAZINE | Mysterious kidney disease goes global
LATIN POST | Nicaragua's Sugarcane Harvesters are Dying from Chronic Kidney Disease and Here's Why
RESOURCES
La Isla Foundation is a public health and policy NGO working at the intersection of public health and human rights to address a fatal epidemic of chronic kidney disease (CKD) among sugarcane workers in Latin America.
Pan American Health Organization is the world’s oldest international public health agency. It provides technical cooperation and mobilizes partnerships to improve health and quality of life in the countries of the Americas.
Solidaridad is an international civil society organization with more than 45 years of global experience in facilitating the development of socially responsible, ecologically sound, and profitable supply chains. Solidaridad works across 12 supply chains and operates through 10 regional offices on 5 continents.