Signal Heat-driven kidney disease of unknown cause is killing young male farm workers

Summary

The Men's Wellbeing Initiative reports an epidemic of chronic kidney disease of unknown cause, known as CKDu, in parts of the Global South. The disease is devastating young male agricultural workers in Central America and in Sri Lanka. The Initiative links it to extreme heat stress and to occupational hazards tied to a changing climate, rather than to the usual metabolic or infectious causes. It places the case within a broader trend in which hormonal, metabolic and environmental factors converge on men's biological health. The example shows how climate exposure at work can become a male-dominated health crisis. It also adds to the Initiative's argument that men's health frameworks overlook conditions concentrated in poorer regions.