Udupi: Manipal Medical Relief Mission - Face-to-Face with Poverty and Diseases in Bihar

from Divvy Kant Upadhyay
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Oct 4: The Manipal University team that set out to provide medical relief services has come back, after treating more than 3000 patients in Narpatganj and Bhargama areas near Arariah, one of the worst affected zones in the flood-hit Bihar.

The group broke up into two teams, one of which stayed back at the health centre at Narpatganj and the other mobile team travelled daily to various devastated areas. Using medicines and I V fluids worth over a lac of rupees, the team treated several poor and displaced people suffering from diarrhea, dehydration, skin infections and other diseases. Almost 50 per cent of the cases treated at the health centre were related to diarrhea diseases. The mobile team, which saw more than 2,700 cases, came across a higher percentage of respiratory infections, apart from diarrhea.

Relief operations are always an effort made in adverse environments. It was no different for the team from Manipal, which collaborated with a team from Nepal and another from Japan. They went to villages, the roads to which had been washed away in the floods. "We used to leave at around 6.30 am daily from our base at Narpatganj and then travel into interiors," says the team leader Dr Ramchandra Kamath. He adds, that "there was a stretch in which our vehicles had to be pulled by tractors to cross the muddy waters and further, there was a point where we had to leave our vehicles and travel by foot for a kilometre or two in water logged fields and on temporarily built cane bridges". The locals, and sometimes the army personnel, helped ferry the team and their medicine boxes to their destinations.

"The women and children were actually the most badly affected lot, as they are generally neglected," says Dr Yogesh, the paediatrician, who saw and treated hundreds of children suffering from diarrhea and skin infections.

Dr Sachin of the team is reminded of a unique incident and says, "Such was the need and desperation in some areas that the ambulance in which we travelled, was once suddenly stopped on the road, requesting for medical help". Dr Kamath explains "the lady and her child were almost in the jaws of death, as they were severely dehydrated. We provided them immediate relief and had to shift them to the health centre in the same ambulance in which our entire team was travelling".

Executive director of planning at Manipal University, Dr H Vinod Bhat coordinated the efforts from Manipal, providing a vital link in maintaining communication.  A public health expert himself, Dr Vinod Bhat stresses on the significance of putting to use improved methods of telecommunications, especially as it becomes a tough task during relief operations. Akiko Fujimoto, specializing in disaster management from the Association of Medical Doctors of Asia (AMDA ), headquartered at Japan, carried high end internet phone communication systems, which helped the team keep in touch with the base and send reports.

The team also received assistance from UNICEF volunteers. Generally apprehensive of the government agencies' apathy and laid back attitude in such situations, the doctors appreciated the commitment and efforts made by the Bihar administration in providing transport, medical, security and guidance services to the medical teams. The team on a few occasions had to face protests by political activists of different factions and was stopped on the road by certain people demanding the teams to go back without providing any relief. "Leaving aside such small hurdles, we are happy, we could give treatment and save many lives." says Dr Kamath.

Dr Vinod Bhat adds, it is easy to criticize the government agencies, but perhaps everyone tries to do their bit in times of such a human catastrophe, in which millions are displaced". He adds, " no one expects the state government to roll out a red carpet for the relief workers, rather provision of basic facilities and security should be enough for the relief teams, but care should be taken to ensure that the relief workers coming to work in such harsh conditions do not face hostility in any form from anyone."

New Venture:

Manipal University plans to set up a Disaster Management Expertise training centre in association with AMDA, Japan.

The AMDA Japan has previously worked with Manipal University in the Gujarat earthquake relief and tsunami relief efforts. The Manipal team feels with every experience together, the teams have come a long way and learnt a lot from each other.  On a visit to Manipal, Akiko Fujimoto expressed her plans to organize an international conference here on disaster relief management. She also held discussions with the University to set up an institute to offer training. Dr Vinod Bhat says, "it is now very essential to impart training with regard to emergency medical relief operations". He adds, that since "we are a university, we could train our young doctors, nurses, engineers and managers how to function in disasters and large scale human calamities."