Cuttack, April 2: The state government will set up a dialysis centre at Narsinghpur in Cuttack district shortly to handle the unusually high number of kidney-related ailments there.

About 300 people from 30 villages at Narsinghpur and Badamba blocks are reportedly suffering from renal dysfunctions and kidney-related ailments. At present, patients who need to undergo dialysis have to travel 80 to 90 km to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.

“The centre will be equipped with three dialysis machines and an auto analyser machine for prompt diagnosis of kidney diseases,” chief district medical officer Rajarani Hazra told The Telegraph today.

“We have identified a building at Narsinghpur for the centre. A project estimate of Rs 7.5 lakh has been submitted. We will start work on the infrastructure after receiving the fund sanction order from the director of the national rural health mission,” Hazra said. Indian Council of Medical Research’s Regional Medical Research Centre in Bhubaneswar had undertaken a survey last year to find out the reason behind the high incidents of kidney diseases at Narsinghpur and Badamba blocks.

The findings indicated that contamination of land by minerals and industrial effluents, fertilisers and pesticides could possibly be behind the incidence of kidney failure. The exact reason, however, is yet to be ascertained.