Post News Network
Baripada, Jan 30: Three children of Dhobadiha village under Jashipur block in Mayurbhanj district have reportedly been afflicted with a mysterious disease, under the impact of which their limbs have shrivelled.
On top of it, their poor parents are not in a position to afford the cost of visiting a doctor to diagnose the disease and bear their medical expenses. Ashok Behera and his wife Ramani Behera are those unlucky parents, who eke out their living by doing menial jobs. The couple has already lost two of their five children to this mysterious disease. Three of them – Chandan (12), now paralysed for two months; Aswini (9); and Babula (6) – are now in the grip of the unidentified disease. The couple said the children were born normal, but as they grew up, their fingers, knees and noses started shrivelling. As the disease spread, the children felt suffocated and two of them passed away even as their parents looked helplessly.
The couple said skin of their kids is peeling off for which they are looking abnormal. Children in the village do not mingle with the kids, they added. The poor parents, who find it difficult to arrange a square meal a day, are cursing their fate. Ashok is speechless when he imagines the final consequences of the disease. The disease came to the full knowledge of the district administration and the public during a survey conducted for the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Yojana. Friday, Ashok along with the three children accompanied by Jashipur community health centre-in-charge Laxmimani Majhi met chief district medical officer (CDMO) Chandan Murmu.
Murmu said he came across such a medical case for the first time. The kids will be sent to Cuttack-based SCB Medical College and Hospital and will be provided with all facilities for their treatment, he added.
Collector Rajesh Prabhakar Patil also assured the children will be sent to Cuttack for treatment.
