Southern States
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Karnataka
Expert allays fears about Handigodu Syndrome
By Our Special Correspondent
SHIMOGA
Feb.7
. There is nothing alarming about the "Handigodu Syndrome", the Director, Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research, and Education, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, S.S.Agarwal, has said.
Handigodu Syndrome is a peculiar bone disease noticed among particular sections of the Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes in the Malnad areas of Shimoga and Chikmagalur districts.
Dr. Agarwal, Principal Investigator of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Task Force Project on the Handigodu Syndrome, who has been associated with the research on the disease since 1986, was talking to a team of presspersons at Sagar, 70 km. from here, on Wednesday.
Tracing the origin of the problem, he said syndrome was first thought to be an endemic form of arthritis, possibly due to exposure to pesticides.
However, when fresh cases continued to occur, the ICMR carried out a comprehensive, multidisciplinary and multi-centre study from 1986 to 1989 to reinvestigate the nature of the disease.
The disease leaves patients unable to walk, with severe pain in the knee and the hip joint.
Dr. Agarwal said various clinical presentations reflected variations in the severity of the disease.
He said: "The defect in the formation of bones is not seen until the patients become 18 to 20 years old."
"However, the earliest it can be seen among children is at the age of eight, through X-rays only."
Dr. Agarwal said the expert teams suggested physiotherapy, orthopaedic assistance, and genetic counselling on the basis of which the State Government set up the Handigodu Mobile Unit at the Government Hospital in Sagar.
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