Hair loss halts, but reason still unclear

Even three weeks after the residents of Shegaon tehsil in Buldhana district first reported mysterious shedding of hair and in some cases overnight balding, the reasons for the hair fall remain unknown.

- Niraj Pandit

BULDHANA:

Over 50 medical experts from Indian Council of Medical Research, from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi, the National Institute of Virology, Pune and the local doctors have been collecting water and soil samples to get to the bottom of the villagers' affliction.

A total of 12 villages have been affected.

On Friday, the district administration issued an advisory recommending chlorination of all water resources in the tehsil, especially in the affected villages. The advisory is part of precautionary measures to ensure potable water supply.

Kiran Patil, the Collector of Buldhana district, under which these villages fall, said the spread had thankfully stopped. "From the samples taken so far, 40% of them have shown high concentration of nitrate, but there is no cause for alarm. It's only when we began doing a door-to-door survey after the first few complaints that we got to know of the extent of the problem."

The village of Wadi in Nandura taluka, which has a population of 1,942, seven cases of hair loss across three families have emerged, with patients ranging from ages of 3 and 45 years. In Shegaon tehsil, the affected villages include Bondgaon, Kalwad, Kathora, Bhongaon, Machhindrakhed, Hingna, Ghui, Taroda Khurd, Pahurjira, Matargaon, and Nimbi.