VIJAYAWADA: Health minister Kamineni Srinivas has said that the reason for the spread of mysterious kidney disease at Uddanam in Srikakulam district is suspected to be the presence of Silica in groundwater.
Briefing the mediapersons here on Thursday, about the discussions he had with an expert team who toured Uddanam region, Kamineni said that a 10-member team comprising nephrologists and professors from National Institute of Epidemiology conducted a day-long workshop for patients in Visakhapatnam on February 6 and gave suggestions to the government to supply purified drinking water to the patients. On the occasion, NTR University of Health Sciences vice-chancellor Dr T Ravi Raju also submitted the earlier study reports of the disease to the professors.
As part of their inspection, the nephrologists have collected the blood samples of 9,000 patients and came to know that majority of them are in stage-III condition, where dialysis will not able to cure the disease. The nephrologists are suspecting that mixing of cashew nut shell powder with tea is also one of the reasons for the spread of kidney disease. Later, the team also collected blood samples from the patients in Sompeta and came to know that 5 per cent of them are with stage-V, he said.
Kamineni also said that chronic kidney disease centres will be established shortly in Srikakulam district to cure the patients with stage-I, II and III and nephrologists are directed to create awareness on the disease among the people. Further treatment will be provided to patients with stage-IV and V, he said.
"In next 10 days, a team from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will tour Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam districts to study the possibilities and sanction funds for establishing chronic kidney disease centres. Two more dialysis centres will be set up at Sompeta and Palasa in addition to the existing three chronic kidney disease centres at Srikakulam, Palakonda and Tekkali," Kamineni said.