An airborne exposure route for a serious kidney disease

Over 60 years ago, case reports revealed two mysterious maladies afflicting patients in multiple countries. In 1956, Bulgarian nephrologist Yoto Tanchev and colleagues detailed a renal disease striking down regional patients that would come to be known as Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN). Thousands of miles away in China, doctor Songhan Wu in 1964 described a pair of patients suffering from acute renal failure after ‘excessive intake’ of a particular plant – Aristolochia manshuriensis.