Mesoamerican kidney disease spreads from Central American fields to U.S. clinics

Mesoamerican nephropathy, a chronic kidney disease of uncertain origin, strikes laborers in Central America’s Pacific region and follows them to the United States, where they often lack health insurance. Experts cite a mix of agrochemical exposure, prolonged heat stress and inadequate hydration as likely causes, with rising temperatures expected to worsen the crisis. In El Salvador, official data show a mortality rate of 67.4 per 100,000 and a public dialysis registry of over 7,300 patients, though doctors say many cases go unrecorded.

Migrants such as Alberto Morales must choose between unaffordable U.S. care or returning home for overburdened public services, relying on family remittances that can reach $120 per dialysis session. The shortage of dialysis beds and specialists forces patients to travel long distances, while the disease continues to claim lives despite preventive testing being scarce.