AP: Six die of kidney ailments in a year, sparking fears amongst locals in Krishna dist

The fear of an Uddanam like tragedy occurring had some of the locals worked up, but officials in the area have stated there is no reason to panic.

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Krishna District:

The death of a 60-year-old man in Jujjuru village in Krishna District in Andhra Pradesh had sparked fears amongst locals. The man, Mangalagiri Apparao, died on Saturday night at Vijayawada General Hospital where he had been admitted and was undergoing treatment for a kidney related ailment.

Apparao is the sixth person from the locality to have died due to a kidney disease in the past one year, which has led to panic amongst the villagers, with some speculating that contaminated water could be causing the problem.

The locals expressed their concerns over how this seemed to be resembling the incidents which took place at A Konduru mandal in Krishna district, in which 10 people died due to Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD).

CKD, also called chronic kidney failure is the loss of function in the kidneys due to a number of underlying causes

Kidneys play the important role of filtering out wastes in the body. In chronic kidney failure, the kidneys stop being able to do this, which leads to further complications

However, official reports stated that there could be a link between alcoholism and the rising number of CKD in Konduru.

Veerulapadu Tahsildar, Rajakumari Vaddeswarupu brushed off these fears of the Jujjuru villages, “The man who died was known to be a chronic alcoholic, which is what doctors have attributed to his condition,” she said to TNM, “There is no water problem in this area, we even had experts who came and tested the waters in the region, and there is no problem with it.”

A report by Times of India even stated that there seemed to be a high consumption of arrack, possibly brewed using urea, which can cause harm to the kidneys.

District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO) Padmaja Rani further clarified to The New Indian Express that ‘no Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) cases were reported in Jujjuru’ or surrounding villages. She further expressed that Apparao had died due to lack of medical attention.

This is not the first time the state is facing such a problem. Uddanam region of Srikakulam district has long been noted as being a ‘hotspot of kidney diseases’ and has been listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as being one of three regions which has a high rate of kidney diseases, along with Sri Lanka and Nicaragua.

Also read: Uddanam Nephropathy, what is Andhra's mysterious kidney disease?

Andhra Pradesh