Latin America

Judi Lynn

(160,623 posts) Sun Feb 12, 2012, 05:49 AM Feb 2012

Mystery Disease Kills Thousands in Central America

Mystery Disease Kills Thousands in Central America
By FILADELFO ALEMAN and MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN Associated Press
CHICHIGALPA, Nicaragua February 12, 2012 (AP)

Jesus Ignacio Flores started working when he was 16, laboring long hours on construction sites and in the fields of his country's biggest sugar plantation.

Three years ago his kidneys started to fail and flooded his body with toxins. He became too weak to work, wracked by cramps, headaches and vomiting.

On Jan. 19 he died on the porch of his house. He was 51. His withered body was dressed by his weeping wife, embraced a final time, then carried in the bed of a pickup truck to a grave on the edge of Chichigalpa, a town in Nicaragua's sugar-growing heartland, where studies have found more than one in four men showing symptoms of chronic kidney disease.

A mysterious epidemic is devastating the Pacific coast of Central America, killing more than 24,000 people in El Salvador and Nicaragua since 2000 and striking thousands of others with chronic kidney disease at rates unseen virtually anywhere else. Scientists say they have received reports of the phenomenon as far north as southern Mexico and as far south as Panama.

More:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mystery-disease-kills-thousands-central-america-15566219

6 replies

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Highlight:

Mystery Disease Kills Thousands in Central America (Original Post) Judi Lynn Feb 2012 OP

The cure might be simple hydration? MADem Feb 2012 #1

In other words, simply worked to death. CanonRay Feb 2012 #2

I was just watched the CBC doc "Big Sugar" ... Agony Feb 2012 #3

Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mexico and Panama--all U.S. "free trade for the rich" countries! Peace Patriot Feb 2012 #4

Worked to death... and all I got was this lousy T-shirt txlibdem Feb 2012 #6

Better publication of this story, with photos. Judi Lynn Feb 2012 #5

MADem

(135,425 posts)

1. The cure might be simple hydration?

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Sun Feb 12, 2012, 05:53 AM

Feb 2012

The roots of the epidemic, scientists say, appear to lie in the grueling nature of the work performed by its victims, including construction workers, miners and others who labor hour after hour without enough water in blazing temperatures, pushing their bodies through repeated bouts of extreme dehydration and heat stress for years on end. Many start as young as 10. The punishing routine appears to be a key part of some previously unknown trigger of chronic kidney disease, which is normally caused by diabetes and high-blood pressure, maladies absent in most of the patients in Central America.

CanonRay

(14,113 posts)

2. In other words, simply worked to death.

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Sun Feb 12, 2012, 09:24 AM

Feb 2012

Agony

(2,605 posts)

3. I was just watched the CBC doc "Big Sugar" ...

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Sun Feb 12, 2012, 09:44 PM

Feb 2012

not only do cane cutters not have adequate water but they may work all day without eating...

Big Sugar explores the dark history and modern power of the world's reigning sugar cartels. Using dramatic reenactments, it reveals how sugar was at the heart of slavery in the West Indies in the 18th century, while showing how present-day consumers are slaves to a sugar-based diet. Going undercover, Big Sugar witnesses the appalling working conditions on plantations in the Dominican Republic, where Haitian cane cutters live like slaves. Workers who live on Central Romano, a Fanjul-owned plantation, go hungry while working 12-hour days to earn $2 (US).

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8046348031279865399

cheap ass sugar... soda, anyone?

Peace Patriot

(24,010 posts)

4. Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mexico and Panama--all U.S. "free trade for the rich" countries!

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Sun Feb 12, 2012, 10:34 PM

Feb 2012

Though Nicaragua and El Salvador now have leftist federal governments, both are still hogtied to U.S. "free trade for the rich." Abuse of workers is the hallmark of U.S. "free trade for the rich." That's how the "free tradists" GET rich, by gross abuse of the workers.

I hope the Sandinista government in Nicaragua can do something about this. They seem like stronger leftists than the current FMLN leadership in El Salvador. Nicaragua belongs to the ALBA trade group (organized by Venezuela and Cuba). El Salvador does not. (Both had prior "free trade" treaties.) There is little hope for the workers in Mexico and Panama, countries run by rightwingers.

txlibdem

(6,183 posts)

6. Worked to death... and all I got was this lousy T-shirt

Reply to Peace Patriot (Reply #4)

Mon Feb 13, 2012, 09:30 AM

Feb 2012

Literally.

The rich jet around the world and enjoy their luxury yachts while hard working families like these are paying for their privileges with their lives. F**k the 1%.

Judi Lynn

(160,623 posts)

5. Better publication of this story, with photos.

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Sun Feb 12, 2012, 11:05 PM

Feb 2012

South American illness baffles scientists as workers succumb to kidney failure at rates unseen anywhere
By Associated Press

Last updated at 3:56 PM on 12th February 2012

Article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2100079/South-American-illness-baffles-scientists-workers-succumb-kidney-failure-rates-unseen-anywhere.html#ixzz1mE6162dc

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