Harvard Team Visits To Study About Kidney Disease

To find answers to the prevalent chronic kidney disease in the Borivanka village in Kaviti mandal of Uddanam region, a two member team from Harvard Medical School, was also accompanied by by Dr NTR University of Health Sciences vice-chancellor - Dr T Ravi Raju to do a survey and find the cause of this condition. The team conversed with almost 200 people which were from the nearby villages, and asked for information regarding the duration of disease, food habits, drinking water sources, medicinal history, pesticides used for their farmlands and working conditions.

Previously another study had been conducted on the same location by King George Hospital and other institutions in a meeting conducted at Andhra Medical College. The team from Harvard compared their findings with the past results to reach an understanding.

Past president of the American Society of Nephrology and Chief of the Renal Unit and Director of the Bioengineering Division at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dr Joseph Bonventre was confident that they would solve this mystery.

"The increasing CKD prevalence is a global phenomenon. We want to develop treatment strategies for the patients and find the root cause of the disease to prevent future cases. Even though it may not happen overnight or in a year, we are hopeful of arriving at a definite root cause," said Dr Bonvontre.

Dr Ravi Raju elaborated on the earlier studies conducted by KGH and other institutions. "Several hypotheses such as high levels of silica in water, prolonged dehydration, heat stress nephropathy, NSAID usage, gene mutations, high pesticide usage, heavy metals in water and so on have been put forward. The state government has established speciality clinics and dialysis centres in the region for the kidney disease patients. About 15% patients were found to have higher creatinine levels during the recent tests conducted by the state government this year in Uddanam region," he added.

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