Kidney disease cuts down Nicaraguan sugarcane workers

A sugar cane cutter drinks an electrolyte solution supplied by his employer at the San Antonio sugar mill in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua. Scientists have so far been unable to pinpoint the cause of the mysterious epidemic of chronic kidney disease, or CKD, that is devastating the Pacific coast of Central America.

Sugarcane cutters work as smoke from burning cane rises behind them in the fields of the San Antonio sugar plantation in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua.

Former sugarcane cutters Juan Cruz, 50, right, and his brother, Hilario Perez Cruz, 30, pose for a portrait in their home in Trohilo, Leon, Nicaragua. Both men suffer from chronic kidney disease and can no longer work at the local sugar mill due to their illness. Story: In Nicaraguan sugarcane community, workers stare death in the face

Ernestina Aleman, right, watches over her son, Jesus Ignasio Flores as he rests in his bed in Chichigalpa. Flores, 51, who died of chronic kidney disease on Jan. 19, 2012, worked as an irrigator and construction worker for 23 years at the San Antonio sugar plantation and mill.

The body of Segundo Zapata Palacios is driven to the cemetery as his funeral procession passes the sugarcane fields where he worked in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua. Zapata, who worked as a cane cutter for 20 years at the San Antonio sugar plantation, died of chronic kidney disease on Jan. 26, 2012, at age 49. Story: Chronic kidney disease: 'Silent killer' may have multiple triggers

Wilson de Jesus Zapata is comforted by his wife at the tomb of his father, Segundo Zapata Palacios, after the elder Zapata's burial at the cemetery in Chichigalpa.