Minister of Indigenous Medicine Tissa Karaliyedda has warned residents of the North Central Province not to use aluminium cooking utensils as their constant use for cooking has been found to be one of the causes for the increase in the number of kidney patients in the North Central Province.

To arrest this trend the Minister has made arrangements to provide residents with clay pots from the funds allocated to the Indigenous Medicine Ministry.

This was revealed by Dr. H. M. Herath Banda, President of Bingiriya Ayurveda Physicians' Association at a recent meeting of Physicians at the Bingiriya MMV.

He said that 10,000 positive kidney patients were now seeking treatment at government hospitals and steps were not being taken to search for an effective Ayurvedic remedy.

A sum of 2.5 million rupees has been allocated by the government for research work and 151 ayurvedic specialists have been assigned with the task of treating serious kidney patients, he added.