Andria Hautamaki - Visual and print journalist based between Chilean Patagonia and Northern Colorado.

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Chronic Kidney Disease (CKDu) in Sri Lanka | Personal project | July 2015

Rice farmers in Central Sri Lanka are suffering a public health crisis of epidemic proportion. Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Origin (CKDu) is causing kidney failure and death at exceptionally high rates among the primary household earners in agricultural regions in their most productive working years—ages 30 to 60. In addition to impacting the individual with the disease, the broader socio-economic implications are quite serious.

First diagnosed over 20 years ago, CKDu has reached epidemic levels in Sri Lanka's dry zone provinces. Solving the CKDu crisis has global public health implications, as the disease also affects agricultural workies in India, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Serbia.