Rickets take heavy toll on children

Some of the rickets-attacked children at a village in Moheshkhali upazila in Cox's Bazar. PHOTO: STAR

The horrifying picture was revealed in a recent survey conducted by an NGO-- Assistance and Rehabilitation for the Physically Vulnerable (SARPV).

There is no government step to prevent spread of the disease or treatment of the affected children. There was no survey eitther.

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"About nine per cent of children in the district are now attacked with the disease. The incidence is more in Moheskhali, Chakaria and Sadar upazilas than in other areas", the survey report claimed.

Earlier in 1991, SARPV conducted a survey in the coastal district when it found 4.7 per cent of the children affected with rickets.

District health officials also admitted that rickets is 'widespread' in the district. But they could not provide any estimate as there was no survey by the government.

"The disease is widespread", Civil Surgeon Abdul Wadud Bhuiya admitted while talking to this correspondent. He declined to say anything more.

Child Specialist Arup Dutta of Sadar Hospital said around 60,000 children could he affected with the disease in the district. He lamented that there was no rickets treatment facility at the government hospital.

SARPV Programme Officer Kazi Moksudul Alam said there are families where 3-4 children are suffering from the disease.

He said deficiency of calcium and Vitamin D is the main cause of the disease.

SARPV runs a clinic at Chakaria where 1580 affected children have been treated so far, Alam said.

The treatment becomes difficult if the patient is not taken to hospital at early stage.

"We treated 128 children through operation on their legs and providing them high calcium and vitamin enriched food. They also needed physiotherapy for long ", he said.

Suriya Akter, a rickets specialist and physiotherapist at the SARPV clinic, said rickets is a disease of immature skeleton characterised by inadequate mineralisation of bone matrix. Rickets affects structure of the growing bone, causing deformities of ribs and limbs. Bones that lack minerals become weak and consequently weight of the body causes bones of legs to bend. Vitamin D deficiency has long been regarded as the main cause of rickets, she said. Lack of exposure to sunlight deteriorates the condition, she added.

Adding vitamin D to child food can improve the situation, she said.

Cases of rickets have also been detected in children with severe calcium deficiency and premature birth with phosphate deficiency.

There are also cases of 'hereditary rickets or acquired vitamin-D resistant rickets', but these are rate.

Bringing a change in food habit, supplying nutrition-enriched food to children and parents and ensuring healthy environment can improve the situation. Otherwise, they feared that the disease could cripple up to 20 per cent of children in the area in next 10 years.

They government should immediately take up some steps to control spread of the disease, they said.