Amid mounting concern on high rates of unexplained kidney disease in the Uddhanam region of Srikakulam district, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is launching an intensive study there in February to identify the likely cause.
A high–level multi-disciplinary ICMR team will investigate the Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology (CKDu) that has affected thousands, beginning in the first week of next month.
The ICMR is sending the team following a request from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. The issue snowballed after actor and Jana Sena Party President Pawan Kalyan made a high profile visit in the first week of January to Uddhanam and strongly criticised the Government for its ‘indifference’ to the kidney disease crisis.
Mr. Chandrababu Naidu then took personal interest and sought the help of ICMR for an in-depth study and options to stem the incidence of Uddhanam nephropathy.
Speaking to The Hindu , Dr. Georgi Abraham, director of nephrology at Madras Medical Mission, Chennai, and a member of the ICMR team, said kidney disease in India was mostly due to diabetes, but the causes of what had been reported from Uddhanam for more than two decades could not be established.
Test protocol
“We will do urine analysis, study the food habits and also examine the water samples to find ways to stop or slow the progression of the disease which eventually leads to terminal illness,” Dr. Abraham said.
The team also has Dr. T. Ravi Raju, Vice-Chancellor of Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences and A.P and Dr. Gangadhar Taduri, senior nephrologist at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad besides six to seven epidemiologists and other domain experts.
“A crucial part of our mandate is to see whether a surveillance mechanism can be put in place to save the hapless people from CKD, the prevention of which, rather than treatment, is sought to be given importance”, Dr. Abraham said.
The prevalence of CKDu in pockets of Sri Lanka was also high, he pointed out, and he was associated with a similar research project with a host of researchers from the World Health Organisation and other institutions.
Dr. Taduri, who has researched chronic kidney disease in Uddhanam, said his studies have pointed to silica and strontium as likely causative factors.
“It is a multi-factor problem. Besides water, indiscriminate use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and heat stress are contributory,” he said. ICMR’s efforts this time should be directed at treating existing patients and course correction to prevent more cases and not additional research alone.
Andhra Pradesh Health Minister, Dr. Kamineni Srinivas was in Uddhanam on Thursday to supervise the location of dialysis centres and reverse osmosis plants and interact with the people affected by the disease.
The team will investigate the kidney disease from the first week of next month.