GUWAHATI, Oct 16 – Contrary to common belief, skeletal fluorosis in children can be cured with regular intake of safe drinking water and pharma-micro-nutrients like calcium, vitamin-E, magnesium, vitamin-C, antioxidants, etc., which can be availed from locally produced vegetables and giving up the habit of consuming the fluoride– containing beverages like tea, items like rock or black salt, supari, etc.
This has been proved experts of the Gujarat’s Anand-based INREM Foundation in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh.
Neurosurgeon Dr R Reddy of the Hyderabad Apollo Hospital is of the opinion that the INERM line, especially its medical line, could be applied in healing the Nagaon district’s Haldihati-Tapatjuri-Parakhowa fluorosed children. Dr Reddy was talking to AB Paul, a former Chief Engineer of the State Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) on the sidelines of the two-day conference on ‘Action and Networking for Fluorosis Free India’ held on October 4 and 5 in New Delhi.
Paul, who is the first PHED engineer to detect fluoride and arsenic contamination of ground-water in some parts of the State, made a presentation on the fluorosis scenario of Assam at the conference.
Dr Reddy expressed the hope that many children would come back to normalcy, or near normalcy, with the correction taking place in their affected bones if the INERM experience is followed. They will regain health and energy with this cheapest of all treatments costing around Rs 3 per day per head. This treatment will have to be continued at least for two years continuously under the watch of trained persons, he told Paul.
Dr Tapas Chakma of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which is the initiator of the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Fluorosis (NPPCF) of the Union Government, supported the views expressed by Dr Reddy and suggested a universal nutrition supplementation to supply vitamin C, etc., to the affected people.
Members of the INERM team also expressed their readiness to visit the affected areas and to extend help to the people to overcome the situation, said Paul.
Hundreds of children in several parts of the State, some even in the Guwahati Master Plan area, are fluorosed. In the Haldihati-Tapatjuri-Parakhowa area alone, the number of such children exceeds 35.
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