Kidney ailments plague Kalahandi villages

The villages get hard water from various sources, which is heavy on minerals.

BHAWANIPATNA:  Cases of kidney-related ailments are on the rise in villages of Kalahandi district. With safe drinking water a luxury for the people, the disease has affected more people in the district. Dumerbahal and Dongripadar under Bhawanipatna block, Jharbandh under Junagarh block and Brundabahal under Golamunda block are the worst hit. In Dumerbahal village, several kidney-related ailment deaths were reported over the years and at present, 19 persons are suffering kidney ailments. During the last one year, specialists from SCB Medical College and Hospital visited the village thrice and met the affected persons. In Dangripada village, people are suffering from different stages of kidney-related ailments.

The villages get hard water from various sources, which is heavy on minerals. Although locals have been demanding installation of piped water supply system, the district administration has not taken any decision in this regard. Similar is the situation in Jharbandh village.

Medical officials, including epidemiologists Dr Sushil Rath and Additional District  Medical Officer (ADMO) Jyotish Kumar Mohapatra, visited Jharbandh village last week and took stock of the situation. They collected water samples from different sources and sent them for testing. According to Health department report, nine persons of the village have been affected and one person died recently.

Contacted, ADMO Kabiraj Choudhury said presence of heavy metal in drinking water is not the only reason behind rise in kidney ailment cases in the district. Some of the other reasons, he said, are unattended hypertension, diabetics, irregular treatment of malaria and irrational use of pain killers. “There is a need for health awareness among people. Not many of them can afford a water filter. Boiling hard water can make it fit for consumption,” he said.

Apparently, due to lack of healthcare facilities in Kalahandi, more and more patients  are preferring treatment at hospitals at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Raipur in Chhattisgarh. Although there is a long pending proposal to set up a  seven-bedded dialysis unit in public-private partnership mode at the District  Headquarters Hospital in Bhawanipatna in the wake of the rising incidents of kidney-related ailments, it has not materialised till date.

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