When we commenced our work associated with the Chronic Kidney Disease unidentified etiology (CKDu) it was clear that western medicine did not know the cause of the disease let alone a cure for that. Various substances such as Cadmium, Fluoride, Algae had been mentioned by some researchers as the cause but western medicine had maintained that the etiology was not identified. If Cadmium had been identified as the cause we would have had no reason to go to gods as a method of acquiring knowledge. The gods said Arsenic was the main cause, the other causes being “kumburu pasa” (a particular soil) and hard water. We tested for Arsenic in water, pesticides and some other agrochemicals, and also in body parts such as hair, nails and also in urine of the people in the affected areas. Our tests revealed that there was Arsenic in all the samples we brought from Rajarata areas and as was said in the previous installments we announced these results to the media so that the government and the people would be aware of the situation.
However, it has to be mentioned that though we were able to demonstrate that Arsenic was present in the samples we tested using the methods of western Chemistry we had not identified Arsenic as the cause of CKDu according to the methods used in western medicine. Our knowledge on the cause is basically what the gods told us through Mrs. Senanayake but the fact that we were able to find Arsenic in hard water encouraged us to believe what the gods conveyed. The gods also told us the mechanism through which combined Arsenic and hard water caused the disease. It is not easy to detect Arsenic in hard water as Arsenic is “hidden” inside the molecules of Calcium and Magnesium salts. The Arsenic through hard water reaches the kidneys and get stuck in without being filtered with urine. Had Arsenic filtered out of the kidneys the way Cadmium does not much damage would have been done to the kidneys.
The World Health Organization (WHO), another arm of western cultural colonialism, that propagates western medicine came out with what they call the final report on CKDu about three weeks ago. They do not identify the cause of the CKDu though some politicians laymen as well as Bhikkus try to gain political mileage out of the WHO report by blaming the government . The WHO report mentions that Cadmium as well as Arsenic are present in the samples they tested but finds that Arsenic is not much present in the urine of the patients. This report has been used by politicians as well as so called scientists to mislead the general public. The “scientists” who were adamant that there was no Arsenic in body parts and the agrochemicals now admit that there is Arsenic in those substances. However they attempt unsuccessfully to give the impression that Cadmium is the cause of CKDu, so that they could get some satisfaction by claiming that Arsenic is not the cause. They cannot fool the public in general as western medicine had failed to identify Cadmium as the cause of the disease previously. As western medicine is aware of Kidney Diseases caused by Cadmium had Cadmium being the cause of the disease the western medical personnel could have easily identified it long ago. In fact even the WHO report does not identify Cadmium or any other substance as the cause of CKDu.
The “scientists” who blame us for resorting to so called unscientific methods are interested in claiming that anything but Arsenic is the cause of the disease. These bankrupt scientists after the WHO report have been forced to admit that Arsenic is present in pesticides though previously they “swore by the gods” that Arsenic is naturally present in the soil and also in the human bodies. However, the WHO report, obviously based on experiments carried at so called accredited laboratories with validated results according to a scientist who could not get through his first examination the first time he sat, claims that Arsenic is present in pesticides in harmful quantities.
The balance sheet, as they say, at present is that people die of CKDu, almost two persons in thre days, Arsenic is present in quantities that are harmful to the humans in pesticides, Arsenic is present in various body parts of the patients, though Arsenic is not found in alarming quantities in urine of the patients, western medicine is still unaware of the cause of CKDu, there is no cure for the disease in western medicine, the government is inactive in the sense that they have not taken any meaningful steps to prevent the spreading of the disease. The politicians who are in the opposition as well as in the government who would like to obtain few more votes at the next elections have gone to town criticizing the government. They claim that not enough dialyzing machines have been provided to the hospitals in the affected areas and in certain places such as Padavi Sripura though there is a machine in the hospital there are no trained personnel to operate it. Then they also claim that water filters have not been distributed to the people so that the latter can purify the drinking water.
While we appreciate the distribution of water filters and provision of dialyzing machines to the hospitals it has to be emphasized that neither is a cure for the CKDu. The dialyzing machines will keep the patient alive for a few more weeks but is not a cure. Similarly water filters will make the importers of filters as well as agrochemicals happy without eradicating the disease. If there is no cure for the CKDu in western medicine the government should obtain the services of Ayurvedic, Siddha, Unani and Sinhala paramparika physicians even on an “experimental” basis. There are such physicians who have claimed that they can cure the disease and no harm will be done by encouraging them to try their hands on the unfortunate victims in the affected areas. If western medicine cannot cure the CKDu why not let some others to treat the patients, without asking for the certificates obtained in some school of medicine recognized by the government. We should break away from the certificates, accredited laboratories, validated results of the so called consultants and specialists, scientists and what not. These people to my knowledge have not come out with a new theory or concept and the so called scientific method is nothing but a pattapal boruwa. Are we going to ignore our knowledge and let people die for the sake of maintaining so called scientific method and attitudes?
If the ministry of health states in their cabinet memorandum that the WHO report has not established the cause of the CKDu, we should not try to blame the ministry whitewashing the WHO report. The WHO report produced after spending Rs. hundred million out of which Rs. Seventy million came from the government funds cannot identify the cause or recommend a cure for the report. Though so far we have not been able to establish that Arsenic is the main cause of the disease according to western methods we claim that it is so depending on our methods. It was our group that claimed Arsenic is the main cause of a Kidney Disease for the first time in the world, and we have shown that Arsenic is present in Agrochemicals and body parts of the patients. The fact the WHO report mentions that Arsenic is not found in large quantities compared to Cadmium in urine of the patients give indirect evidence to the cause of the disease as it is clear that Arsenic is retained in the Kidneys causing damage. It has to be mentioned that our studies did not cost the government more than one hundred thousand rupees.
The problem started after the so called green revolution which introduced Agrochemicals to the farmers in the sixties by the UNP government. The contamination of water with Arsenic took place after that, and by the eighties the first CKDu patients had appeared. The use of Agrochemicals have to be stopped gradually introducing the farmers to Sinhala govikma and may be traditional Tamil farming so that we would be able to produce poison less food. There is no point in blaming the present government alone for the killings of the people as all the governments since 1965, have encouraged use of Agrochemicals. I do not criticize the governments either as they get instructions from high powered officials who are trained to believe that the so called scientific solutions have to be adopted. It is the western Christian colonialism with its cultural component involving western Christian knowledge based on Greek Judaic Christian Chinthanaya that have to be blamed for the killing of two people in three days and I deplore the attitudes of the political Bhikkus and politicians who want to maintain the so called western scientific methods in order to win a few votes at the next election sacrificing thousands of people.
(13/03/27)