A wave of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is killing an extraordinary amount of sugar cane field workers in Central America. It’s so prevalent that communities are gaining nicknames like “The Island of Widows” as a result of the death tolls.

Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, a town roughly the size of Palo Alto, California, has seen the death rates from CKD increase five-fold in the last 20 years. It’s a pattern that has the extremely painful disease rising through El Salvador and Nicaragua.

A woman who lives in “La Isla de Viudas” (Island of Widows) lost both her husband and her 19-year-old son to the mysterious ailment.

Experts say that CKD in the United States and other industrialized nations is related to obesity, diabetes and hypertension. However, the victims in Central America show no signs of those diseases.

Many residents in the area believe the root of the disease is coming from chemicals being sprayed on sugar cane fields where the men work from sunrise to sunset. Investigators believe that dehydration from working long hours is contributing to the advanced progression of the disease.

Mario Amador, spokesman for the sugar cane industry, denies their chemicals are to blame and blames the workers saying they drink too much alcohol.