Tibetans to get new homes away from bone disease

CHENGDU: More than 17,000 Tibetan households will move into new homes away from possible water sources that might have contributed to an incurable, endemic bone disease that leaves victims unable to work, local authorities in the Aba Tibetan-Qiang autonomous prefecture in Sichuan province have said.

With an investment of 1.1 billion yuan ($157 million) from the government, a total of 17,067 households in mountainous villages with high incidence of Kaschin-Beck disease will resettle in new homes by 2013, said He Wentao, an official of Aba's development and reform commission.

The disease bloats the joints of its victims, leading to limb deformity or dwarfism.