Rampilli Appachi, 50, wears a dejected look as she sits in a chair in front of her small house at the picturesque Yarada village, which has become a part of the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC).
Appachi is not alone there are around 50 others, mostly women, who have are living a life of misery. They were all affected by filaria and most of them have been living with the disease for over two decades.
Some of the victims, whose problem was detected early, are lucky enough as the disease was arrested with drugs. Thankfully, no new cases have been detected in the last three years.
First symptoms
“I had spent 15 tolas of gold and 50 tolas of silver ornaments on treatment but I continue to suffer. The first symptoms were noticed when I was pregnant for the second time. I had tried several medicines without any relief,” recalled Ms. Appachi talking to The Hindu .
There is a severe swelling of her leg, making it difficult for her to move normally. Her worst nightmare is when she gets fever. The temperatures run high and she passes into a coma and has to be literally rushed to a hospital and given injections to bring her back to normal.
B. Thavitamma, 65, lying on a cot in her house, located just opposite Appachi’s home, says: “I have been suffering with this problem for the past 40 years. I experience unbearable pain in the leg, when I get fever and the pain travels down from the hip.”
“My mother-in-law Pydamma, 65, has been suffering with the problem for the past three decades. I get medicines for her from INHS Kalyani every month,” says S. Aruna, an employee of the Naval Canteen, who stays at Yarada.
Yarada has a population of around 4,500. The affected persons as also the villagers say that the situation has improved a lot after Eisai Pharma Co. initiated cleanliness drives, created awareness on vector-borne diseases, distributed mosquito nets, conducted anti-larval operations and constructed community toilets.
A majority of the filarial cases occur in areas situated at the end of the village where there is water stagnation from a drain let out from the Naval residential areas, on the Yarada Hill, into the sea.
