Mysterious disease sending young, healthy Texas workers into kidney failure

Key Points:

• A mysterious kidney disease known as chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu) or Mesoamerican nephropathy, previously seen in Central America and South Asia, has now been identified in Texas, primarily affecting young to middle-aged agricultural and manual labor workers.
• CKDu develops without traditional risk factors like diabetes or hypertension and is linked to strenuous outdoor labor in hot climates, repeated heat stress, dehydration, and possible exposure to pesticides and unsafe drinking water.
• In Texas, many affected patients are undocumented laborers from Mexico and Central America working in extreme heat with limited water breaks, with some presenting severe kidney failure symptoms and no identifiable causes.
• There is no specific test or treatment for CKDu; diagnosis relies on excluding other causes and assessing occupational exposure, while management focuses on controlling blood pressure, avoiding further kidney damage, and dialysis or transplantation in advanced cases.
• Experts recommend regular kidney function screening for at-risk workers through blood and urine tests to detect early kidney damage, as the disease often progresses rapidly and is associated with high mortality due to limited treatment access.