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A deadly mixture of poverty and ignorance is fueling a public health crisis in Nepal.

The village of Hokse in Nepal is known as Kidney Valley because someone from almost every household has sold a human organ.

Brokers have been visiting the area for years, persuading people to part with an organ, even though it’s illegal.

One of the villagers, called Kanchha, has told Sky News that financial desperation has left most of the villagers unable to work after selling their organs, saying “It’s impossible to count how many have done it, everywhere, this village, that village, so many people have sold their kidneys.”

Locals have been trying to change their fate in recent years, but many are still being tricked. Some believe they were exploited, while others claim they were persuaded their kidneys would regrow. Some people have even died as a result of what was done to their bodies.

Tragically, poverty is now fueling a fresh health crisis in Nepal, this time centred mostly on kidneys.

Increasing numbers of Nepalis are forced to work overseas in the Gulf States and Malaysia to make more money for their families back home. But that’s come with its own jeopardy. Young, once-healthy men are returning to Nepal in desperate need of a kidney transplant. Some scientists say it is the result of exposure to extreme heat and severe dehydration.

Villagers like Kanchha feel like they have “no option” but to travel to India to sell their kidneys. It’s a physically excruciating process that leaves them scarred – for a meagre £3,000 (R71,000).

“I felt weak and I lost consciousness,” he says. “When I woke up, it was really hurting. Now I can’t work and I try to tell anyone I can, not to sell their kidney.”

Organ trafficking remains a major concern in India. A wide gap in demand and supply fuels it.

The lack of donors has given rise to a black market, with doctors and hospitals among those exposed in investigations into “cash for kidney” rackets.

But it is not unique to India. Estimates suggest that globally, one in 10 transplanted organs have been trafficked.

“Agents produce fake documents in Kathmandu, including Indian ID cards,” says another villager who also sold his kidney in India. “My kidney was given to a fake sister. I think the doctor in India knew I’d sold it.”

Dr Pukar Shresth, a pioneering and renowned surgeon at the Human Organ Transplant Center in Nepal, used to only perform transplants on the elderly but has recently seen young people with scarred and shrunken kidneys. He noticed a pattern – young men going to work in high heat, with little water and returning with “completely failed kidneys”.

“It is very grave because about one third of all transplants are these labour migrant workers who have come from abroad.”

A recent report by Human Rights Watch stated migrant workers are mistreated and viewed as “disposable”. The fact remains that migrant workers still feel forced to work in some of the world’s hottest places and they have very little agency.

While some countries like Qatar have reduced the hours people can work in the sun, Nepalis’ suffering hasn’t stopped.

[source:skynews]