As part of their effort to find the root cause of the high rate of kidney diseases in the Hadeijia valley which extends from zakirai in Kano state through Hadeijia in Jigawa state, Nguru and Gashua in Yobe state, researchers from Federal University Dutse who earlier won a 36 million naira Tetfund research grant have launched sample collection for the project in Hadeijia town.
The Principal Investigator ,Dr Muhammad Isa Auyo who led the team to the palace of the Emir of Hadeijia, Alhaji Adamu Abubakar Maje said the team were in Hadeijia to flag off the sample collection for their research into the high rate of kidney failure in Hadeijia which is the highest in the world.
Dr Auyo said as a son of the emirate who has a first hand experience with people with kidney failure, he assembled a team of researchers and they wrote a proposal to Tetfund on the chronic kidney diseases of unknown etiology in the Hadeijia valley which they defended and got the approval to carry out adding that 17 million naira has been released recently which helped the team to purchase all the necessary equipment for the research .
According to him, he was personally committed to do the reseach because he has lost nine family members to kidney failure adding that his immediate younger sister just died from the disease last month.
He said the team is suspecting the presence of environmental toxins in foods and the polymorphism of metallothionen gene as the cause of the disease.
The Principal Investigator said they will collect water,soil, fish,cereals, fruits and vegetables, milk, meat, herbs, grass, tree shoot in every 10 kilometres in Hadeijia, zakirai, Nguru and Gashua for the research adding that, the research will take 20 months to complete.
Dr Auyo said at the end of their findings, they will make recommendations to the government on what to do to tackle the disease.
He said the team consisted of ten Medical connsultants, environmentalists, molecular biologists, technicians among others.
He appealed to the Emirate to sensitize members of the public on the commencement of the sample collection.
Also speaking, the Galadiman Hadejia, Alhaji Usman Abdulaziz thanked the team for their interest in finding the cause of kidney diseases in the emirate.
He added that the emirate will give its full support to the project because they are concern about finding a lasting solution to the problem.
He said the emirate will immediately inform the Imams, district heads, ward heads and village heads in the emirate of the presence of researchers in the emirate for the next 20 months so that every person in Hadeijia will give their full cooperation.
USMAN MZ
