Rare bone disease hits Tibet - 14,000+ cases

[Gert van der Hoek]

A "lakh" is 100,000; It seems the authorities take advantage of the situation for political motives.


Rare bone disease hits Tibet, 1.70 lakh at risk

Read more: Rare bone disease hits Tibet, 1.70 lakh at risk - The Times of India

BEIJIJNG: A rare and incurable endemic bone disease is posing a serious health risk to residents in a remote Tibetan region, with about 170,000 people threatened by it.

At least 14,662 people have been diagnosed with Kaschin-Beck disease in 11 counties in Qamdo prefecture, one of the most seriously affected regions, according to a survey conducted by local health authorities.

The survey said an estimated 1.70 lakh people stand at risk by the disease.

The patients afflicted by the disease develop thick and deformed joints, which eventually prevents them from working, official Xinhua news agency reported today.

Doctors say the cause of the disease remains unknown. Some suspect that a fungus contained in barley, a staple food in the plateau, is to blame for it. Low iodine intake may be another cause, experts say.

The local government has been promoting relocation as a way to prevent the spread of the disease.

In the past five years, about 90 million yuan (USD 13. 55 million) has been spent on the relocation programme and nearly 20,000 residents have been moved out of the region, it said.

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Rare bone disease hits Tibet - 14,000+ cases

Int Orthop. 2009 Aug;33(4):1085-8. Epub 2009 Mar 17.

Effects of physical environment on the evolution of Kashin-Beck disease in Tibet.

Hinsenkamp M, Mathieu F, Claus W, Collard JF, de Maertelaer V.

Hôpital Erasme, Service d'Orthopédie Traumatologie, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 808 route de Lennik, 1070, Brussels, Belgium. mhinsenk@ulb.ac.be

Abstract

In previous studies we observed a proximo-distal gradient of lesion frequencies along the limb, with the distal joints being the most often affected. This suggests an associated effect of environmental factors on the most exposed joints.

On a population of 820 children (mean age 13 years) of endemic areas distributed in groups of healthy and severity stages I to III of KBD (Kashin-Beck disease), the effects of different working activities were studied.

Heavy work like that of a ploughman were compared to light physical work, e.g. school children, and exposure to cold and history of frostbite were also considered.

The most severe stages, II and III, were present in 72% of the ploughman vs. 29% of the schoolchildren, 70% of the shepherds vs. 30% (p < 0.001) of the schoolchildren, and in 65% of the shepherds working in winter vs. 40% of those working in the other seasons (p < 0.001). In the group with history of frostbite, 58% present the severest stages vs. 40% without (p < 0.001).

The results confirm a highly significant relation between microtrauma and cold and the severity of the KBD alterations.

pubmed