Mysterious kidney disease slays workers throughout Central America

A mysterious epidemic is sweeping Central America -- it's the second biggest cause of death among men in El Salvador, and in Nicaragua it's a bigger killer of men than HIV and diabetes combined.

It's unexplained but the latest theory is that the victims are literally working themselves to death.

"It is important that the chronic kidney disease afflicting thousands of rural workers in Central America be recognised as what it is - a major epidemic with a tremendous population impact," says Victor Penchaszadeh, a clinical epidemiologist at Columbia University in the US, and consultant to the Pan-American Health Organization.

Original source: BBC News