A Mysterious Disease Is Striking Texas Farm Workers
A Mysterious Disease Is Striking Texas Farm Workers
Cara Lynn ShultzWed, September 16, 2026 at 9:06 PM UTC
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Stock image of workers on a farmCredit: Getty -
Chronic kidney disease of unknown origin (CKDu) is linked to intense heat and affects agricultural workers in hot regions
The disease disproportionately impacts undocumented workers, who avoid seeking medical care due to immigration status
Experts warn CKDu and other heat-sensitive illnesses may worsen with climate change and limited access to healthcare
A mysterious kidney disease is striking farm workers in Texas.
Texas hospitals are reporting a rise in cases of CKDu, or chronic kidney disease of unknown origin, per a review from Texas Monthly, — and a substantial portion are occurring in undocumented workers. Out of 364 of emergency dialysis cases in uninsured or undocumented patients between 2012 and 2015 at Harris Health (the public health system for Harris County), 17% didn’t have an identifiable cause like diabetes or high blood pressure.
While researchers may not know the exact cause of CKDu, they know it’s related to intense heat, Dr. Richard J. Johnson, emeritus professor of medicine at the University of Colorado and an expert on kidney disease, told Fox News Digital.It can present as “typical signs of severe chronic kidney disease, including fatigue, sleep disturbances, nausea, weakness [and] shortness of breath from anemia.”
Farmland in TexasCredit: Getty
The disease “typically strikes young to middle-aged adults, more often men, who work in agriculture and manual labor in hot, low-resource regions,” Dr. Gokul Paidi, a family medicine physician at Community Healthcare Network in New York, told the outlet. They don’t have any of the traditional risk factors for kidney disease, like diabetes or high blood pressure.
It initially surfaced in El Salvador, New England Journal of Medicinesays, when“ unusually large numbers of agricultural workers began dying from irreversible renal failure” in the 1990s. There, it’s called Mesoamerican nephropathy.
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And CKDu is “likely to be just one of many heat-sensitive illnesses that will be unmasked and accelerated by climate change, “ NEJM says.
In Texas, it’s unknown how many people are impacted, with experts saying many won’t seek medical help given their undocumented status amid the recent surge in ICE arrests. And recently, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 2127, which abolished mandated water breaks.
Aerial view of workers on a farmCredit: Getty
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“The population is so vulnerable and has such limited access to health services at all that screening for kidney disease is not on the radar,” Rebecca Fischer, associate professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health at Texas A&M told Texas Monthly. “This is a disease of poverty. It’s a neglected disease, in a neglected population, in a neglected part of the world, in impoverished communities that, frankly, many people are not paying attention to.”
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Source: “AOL Breaking”
