The apathetic attitude of the successive governments in addressing the Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) problem of the fertile Uddanam region of Srikakulam district moved a doctor, who has been serving the affected people in that region for the past 25 years along with his colleague.
Krishna Murthy, an anaesthetist, and his colleague Shivaji, a gynaecologist, have been serving in the region since 1992 and are touched by the plight of the people
“We are both disciples of T. Ravi Raju, noted nephrologist and present Vice-Chancellor of Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences. We have started practising in Sompeta in 1992. During our early career, we found that the incidence of anaemia was more in Uddanam region. There were no testing facilities for blood sugar levels and creatinine in Uddanam at that time.”
“We pondered over the issue and suspected kidney problem. We took the help of Dr. K. Suman of Vizag in the conduct of the tests and subsequently alerted the local media and political leaders of the problem. In 1995, I had approached Dr. Ravi Raju. Though some efforts were made on and off, they did not materialise.”
“I again approached Dr. Raju, when was the Director of Medical Education and he gave a report to the State government, suggesting the establishment of a research centre, but nothing happened subsequently. The report must be lying somewhere,” he said.
Dr. Krishna Murthy became emotional when recalling the plight of the patients. They did not even have the money to come to our clinics for treatment due to poverty. Some lost the sole breadwinner in their families, while in some families children were orphaned.
Gets attention
The issue got the attention it deserved only after Jana Sena founder Pawan Kalyan went to Uddanam on January 3, this year.
There were no coordinated effort till then but after that it caught the attention of the State government and the international community.
“Mr. Pawan Kalyan had deputed medical teams and started a movement for finding a solution to the nagging health problem, which literally turned the ‘Konaseema of Srikakulam district’ into a picture of misery due to CKD,” he said.
Rajesh of JSP, however, said JSP’s objective was to show how “People’s power can move people in power.”
