Anantapur: An eight-year-old girl has been found to have symptoms of leprosy, at Srisri Nagar Colony here. The girl, an orphan, was staying with her relatives at Srisri Nagar Colony, and studying Class-III at the municipal school.
Official sources said NSS volunteers of Anantapur Medical College took up a survey of 86 houses of Indiranagar Urban Health Centre area on Thursday, at which this was noticed. The dermatology department has also confirmed the case as positive.
Anantapur medical college coordinator Dr Paradesi Naidu said the case of the girl was handed over to the district medical and health officials. The teams had noticed nearly 14 cases suspecting leprosy symptoms, but only the eight year-old girl from Srisri Nagar was reported positive after a through examination.
Official sources said abo-ut 386 cases have been identified in various parts of the district and the patie-nts are being provided necessary treatment including restitution surgeries at Pavagada in neighboring Karnataka and Palamaneru in Chittoor district.
Leprosy cases were reported more at Kanekal, Pamudurthi and Kristipadu areas in the district. District medical and health officials said Anantapur stood top in initiating restitution surgeries for the patients from Anantapur district and sending them to centres at Pavagada and Palamaneru.
The government was also distributing Rs 8,000 on each patient for getting restitution surgery for health care and maintenance for a period of month. Also, financial aid would be arranged for the patients for their future livelihood, district medical and health officer Dr Venkata Ramana said.
Meanwhile, tuberculosis cases were on the rise including muli-drug resistant TB cases in Anantapur. Reports said more than 7,548 TB cases were identified and 130 cases with multi-drug resistant TB.
Anantapur TB control officer Dr Ravella Sudheer Babu told DC that CBNAAT (Cartridge-based Nuclic Acid Amplification Technique) equipment has been functioning for the past three months.
“The equipment could diagnosis TB within two hours after collecting the smear from the patient as against the older method that takes more than eight days”, he observed, and local staff were trained at the National Institute of Tuberculosis.
