Health

Following the tragic but avoidable death of 6 year-old Meghala from D.J.Halli on July 17th 2013 due to malnutrition, the increased focus on the social indicators in D.J.Halli revealed a high incidence of disability in the area.  At the public hearing on 12th December 2013 at DJ Halli, several differently-abled persons shared the issues they faced with regard to access to disability pension and other schemes. The jury said that this was a human rights violation and the District disability welfare officer (DDWO) for Bangalore urban, Mr. G. Mohan promised to do a survey within the next two months to…

Chennai-based Dr Ruffles is extremely popular with children. His treatment has helped several non-verbal children with autism to speak up, aided those with attention deficit disorder and other learning disabilities to improve their performance in school, and even resolved complex behavioural issues in many of his little patients. Quite incredibly, though, the good doctor has accomplished all this without so much as uttering a single word or writing out a prescription. Indeed, he has become the hugely successful therapist he is by simply being himself – a non-judgmental, attentive and very affectionate dog! Ruffles is the resident ‘doctor’ at the…

Salt is the most underrated ingredient, but by far the most important when you think of food. Important enough to be worshipped by the Greeks, to have battles fought over it, to be used as currency and to make international headlines- thanks to Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘Salt Satyagraha’! Used widely to give the ‘salty’ flavor to dishes, it is said that a pinch of salt added to sweet dishes tends to make the dish sweeter! Pic: http://bharatcs.blogspot.in It is one of the most precious natural compound and found naturally in saltwater and in the mineral halite. Salt or ‘table salt’ is…

Even after receiving funds amounting to Rs.126.79 crore, Super Speciality Hospital of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) does not have necessary equipment for its smooth functioning. What little equipment purchased has been gathering dust in stores, unused and useless. This was what the Comptroller Auditor General of India (CAG) found out while auditing the books of BMRCI. Funds for the Super Speciality Hospital cum college were floated under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). The CAG audit was conducted between March-May 2013. While scrutinising Medical Education Department records, CAG inspected the establishment of BMCRI which was supposed to…

Are you aware of the ill-effects, especially on health, caused by the increasing number of mobile towers and resultant radiation levels in Bengaluru and other cities? Is there any government body to regulate the installation of cell towers? Are citizens allowed to know the actual level of radiation in a given area? In the backdrop of these questions, Surakshit Vatavaran has recently initiated an e-petition on Change.org to the Prime Minister of India for the establishment of a regulatory body to monitor cell tower installations and radiation levels.  You can find their petition here.   Subhashree, Managing Trustee at Surakshit…

A man claiming to be a cardiologist who ran his own hospital for five years was not registered as a doctor in the state of Karnataka. S K Guharoy, who described himself as “about 42 years” in the documents he submitted in court, is not registered as a doctor in his hometown state of West Bengal. He says he has treated thousands of patients at his Medicare Hospital in R T Nagar in the past five years. According to the Medical Council of India, all doctors working in the state should be registered both in Karnataka and in their home…

DJ halli in Bangalore has been in the news for several reasons primarily for the deaths of children due to severe malnutrition and associated medical illnesses and complications including disabilities. The community has met several times over the last few months and identified many problems in DJ halli. These are: 1.   Anganwadis which are inadequate for the population of DJ halli  and ill equipped to meet the needs of the children. Many children are still not enrolled in anganwadis and do not have access to any of the benefits. Children with SAM and cerebral palsy have even more difficulties in…

Picture courtesy: John Crawford (Wikimedia Commons) A key anti-retroviral therapy (ART) drug for HIV-positive people is unavailable in government hospitals in Bangalore. The so-called third-line ART drug, which is used to treat patients after they have been administered the first and second lines to suppress the virus, is not supplied to the city’s government hospitals. Chandrika, 33, an HIV-positive woman working with a Bangalore-based NGO that helps HIV-positive people, whose 16-year-old son also has the disease, told The SoftCopy she cannot afford to buy the drug for him from private hospitals. “My son is in need of the third line…

You get an emergency text message late in the night, seeking help in getting a specific blood group. You start wondering how you can be of help. Do you know, Namma Bengaluru has many resources where you have ready blood of all groups? You can also check where exactly it is available, and seek help, or forward it to the concerned person who might be busy battling the emergency situation. Here is a guide for you. Where can I find blood? The Karnataka State Drug Control Department maintains an online public portal which provides details of blood types available in…

The panic of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) seems to be here to stay for a while. According to the statistics of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences Department (AHVSD), 31 cattle in Bangalore have died (of which 10 deaths are in Bangalore rural and 21 in Bangalore urban), while 90 cattle in rural Bangalore are affected and 316 in urban Bangalore are affected. In Karnataka state- 8212 cattle are affected, of which 857 have died, as on September 29, 2013. While this disease does not affect humans, they could be the carriers. As a precautionary measure, the Department also…