Aug

31

Dirty hands, deep ditches

August 31, 2009 posted by indiatime | 2 Comments

Times is reporting about a global hygiene survey that shows only 44% Indians have clean hands. I wonder why we need a survey to tell us that the majority of Indians have dirty hands. If you add up all the politicians, top/mid/low level bureaucrats, law enforcement, judiciary, etc, that would already amount for a large share of the dirty hands right there. With politicians, you can add their family members, wives, sons, daughters, etc. And add these people’s partners from the industry and corporate world, from small-time grocery shops to big-time corporates.

Actually, we should be celebrating that 44% Indians have clean hands. That’s almost half a billion clean hands, probably the largest population of clean hands on the planet. I was discussing this amazing piece of good news with a friend, when he enlightened me that the 44% clean hands literally meant clean hands, free of biological germs. That revelation, instead of tempering my joy, further heightened it, because that 44% clean hands figure started looking even more impressive.

But ‘clean hands’ wasn’t the only metaphor happening this morning.

In New Delhi, a top bureaucrat. who once served with a prime minister, died yesterday, when he fell into a 6-foot roadside ditch. Speak of good people’s lives driven to ditches because of the government’s callousness. 78-year old Trilok Nath Makan was a private secretary to former PM Atal Bihari Bajpayee. Walking close to a sidewalk which hadn’t remained much of a sidewalk because of roadside digging by the local municipal government, Makan fell into an open ditch. He couldn’t see the 6-foot ditch because the roadside lamps had been turned off. He lay in the ditch overnight, his family and his old wife worrying to death about his whereabouts. They found his body in the ditch in the morning, one of the topmost bureaucrats who served this country, literally disappearing into a ditch because someone failed to cover it.

Now let’s have those survey people go and talk to the officials in the Delhi municipality and the corrupt contractors. How many clean hands, you think?

Aug

25

Fake blood in Indian market

August 25, 2009 posted by indiatime | 2 Comments

Exactly a year ago, scientists in the west published research about manufacturing blood cells from embryonic stem cells, filling up tubes of rare blood types from scratch. A year later, scientists from Australia are speaking about another breakthrough where they have now built glow-in-the-dark red blood cells from stem cells. Most western scientists envision a time within the next decade, when an endless supply of blood would be made available, simply by manufacturing needed types of blood in the lab, ending the blood donation scene as we know it today.

Indians are not far behind. In fact, not just the Indian scientists, but even ordinary crooks in India have progresses much beyond most western scientists. Police in Lucknow, UP, has hit upon an artificial blood bank facility that has been manufacturing fake blood for last more than 3 years. It is estimated that over a hundred thousands units of blood has already been distributed into the nation’s blood supply from these artificial or fake blood manufacturing facilities. The perpetrator scientists at the facility had been collecting and mixing up blood from every possible source - beggars, animals, drug addicts, HIV+ve patients, and professional donors. Plus the blood is never tested, just mixed and distributed, finding its way into the unsuspecting hospitals and clinics.

So far, the police has only nabbed some junior ’scientific officers’ at this lab. The senior perpetrators, it seems, have slipped away. There have been several other recent arrests related to blood donation rackets, that thrive on the 9 million units demand for blood in India.

In other news, a kid in Rajasthan state was critical after being forced to donate blood on the birth anniversary of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. The blood donation camp is said to have been organized by a politician from Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress party.

Aug

13

The economics of swine flu - I

August 13, 2009 posted by indiatime | 8 Comments

The swine flu epidemic is so far purely a health crisis. And it will be so for a while. But one of the downsides of not having managed to stem the tide earlier, is slowly going to be seen on the economic front. Already, many avenues on that economic fronts are being hit hard:

1. Retail: since people will be staying home and not strolling in the malls and on the streets. With the festival and holiday season right around the corner, the impact is even worse, since many retailers make much of their annual income during these few months.

2. Entertainment: Especially, Bollywood, since so much of the business there is based on crowds showing up at the movies. Television, will however, have a bigger audience and many more eyeballs watching.

3. Transportation: Actually, transportation and civil aviation may be showing an uptick in the initial period, as people scramble to get to the place of their choice during such critical times. Most will be traveling home to be closer to families, plus since the cities are affected the most, there is a mini-exodus away from the cities to smaller towns and villages.

4. Tourism: Tourism will take a major hit, near-term as well as long-term. International tourism will drop rather drastically. Visuals of locals moving around in masks is hardly the kind of tourism commercial India would want the international tourists to see.

5. Food-related industries: e.g. a lot less eating out, and the restaurant industry will take a direct hit.

6. Pharmaceuticals: Typical flu season remedies are already in high demand, but the biggest beneficiaries are the mask-makers, especially those that make and distribute the special flu masks or respirators.

7. Medical Tourism: Takes a huge hit because of swine flu. With TV images of unclean hospitals with unhygienic conditions and discarded and infected masks lying around or thrown on the streets, it’s hard to convince the world that cheap is better.

8. Outsourcing: Although outsourcing is supposed to work remotely and via telecommutes, India is where the actual human factor of outsourcing lives, so any shift in the workforce is bound to affect that. In an industry where deadlines and timely deliveries can mean much, employees not showing up can prove quite inconvenient.

9. Sports: The world badminton tournament has already lost a few teams where players of some countries have chosen to flee home. Soon, Cricket too, may take a backseat to the epidemic flu. Thankfully, the commonwealth games are a year away.

10. Finance: Reduction in short and long-term investments is one of the adverse effects that is little discussed but is much-feared.

Scientists who study the effects of epidemics on economy, point out that the need for flexibility in resource allocation and the limitation of movement of the masses are two of the biggest challenges posed by epidemics. In a country like India, those challenges are further heightened, firstly by existing infrastructural challenges in resource allocation and distribution, and secondly by the size of the population where it’s not just limitation of people’s movement but the challenge of limitation of movement for a billion people.

Swine flu has already overwhelmed and overburdened some giant economies. For India, however, it brings economic challenges of proportions that are best best kept mum about. Unless controlled soon, we may be seeing the impact of this H1N1 flu for many years to come.

Aug

12

The sunny side of swine flu season

August 12, 2009 posted by indiatime | 3 Comments

Swine flu, the epidemic that has lately been ravaging India, is said to be a little uncomfortable with warmer climates. Yesterday, when India’s health minister was tauting India’s early efforts in successfully stemming the swine flu tide, most Indians knew that the slow early uptick in swine flu infections had little to do with governmental interventions and a lot more to do with the much hotter summer climate of a few months ago. With temperatures across India dropping down several degrees, H1N1, having survived the early shock of India’s heat, seems to have come back with a vengeance.

That also means H1N1’s days in India are limited. Sure, there will be many more victims at the rising rates being reported daily. But October is around the corner and having never lived in India, H1N1 has no idea what it’s in for. In fact, October heat in India is at times much harsher and much inhabitable for most living things. It is a lot harder to take than the hot summers that Indians have always been used to. And hiding in between a comfortable post-summer fall and the cooler breezes of November, October stands like a mean-spirited bully that won’t budge.

This year though, India can’t wait for October to be here. Watching innocents die day after day, of a flu that none of us had ever heard about, having nothing to do with pig farming, and having to suffer for some other civilization’s dietary and hygiene habits, none of it all makes any sense. But then again, nothing ever last for ever, and so won’t this deadly swine flu season. Some have recently suggested that even planet earth’s days in the universe are almost over.

But you and I may not have to wait for that to see the end of swine flu. A few more rotations of planet earth will tilt the planet just enough to drive swine flu out of its comfort zone here in India. Six more weeks. And the normally unwelcome October will find many takers this time around. And then we’ll here the health minister once again, speaking about how the government’s policies made H1N1 run away with its tail between its legs. And thus will begin yet another political season.

Aug

11

New swine in old bottle

August 11, 2009 posted by indiatime | 4 Comments

Most Indian media are today abuzz with swine flu activity in and around the government and public circles. Since yesterday, India’s health minister Azad has been seen busy, coordinating a national health disaster management. Still, it is a matter of great shame and surprise to most, how India has bungled this one up.

It was well over a few months ago that we heard of screening at India’s international airports, and quarantines for suspected swine flu patients. All that precaution, seemed to stem the tide, for a while. For just a little while that is. The government officials and the public health experts in India, imagined that this was a disaster avoided. Hardly. Swine flu seems to have come back with a vengeance and it seems to have adapted itself to the Indian climate, and now has gotten comfortable with India’s hospitality and warmth.

One would think we would have learnt the lessons after seeing a dozen deaths across the country in a matter of a few dozen hours. Ha! India’s Health minister was upto the old Indian politician trick today, telling the Indian press how India has handled it better than USA and UK. “…They’ve had so many deaths, we haven’t…”, he opined. Although statistically and numerically accurate, his statement shows his ignorance and inexperience in handling disasters of this kind, and that is a very scary fact. For the health minister and his team, may have wasted precious time during last several weeks, focusing their attention on other much less important matters than a worldwide pandemic that everyone knew would soon come to India. And whenever he was hard pressed for answers, the minister’s response was that ‘health is a state subject..”.

If health is indeed a state subject, then what is the need to have a health ministry in New Delhi? Why don’t we just shut down the central health ministry and save us some Rupees that are needlessly spent in supporting a department that has no work and no job except to make suggestions about public policies?

But that’s not going to be much comfort, either. The state level health departments are full of even stupider morons who can’t seem to produce an intelligent monosyllable. As of this moment, Maharashtra government’s health department’s website fails to make even a mention of swine flu. And even if they did decide to wake up, what would they do? The health ministry of that state, which is currently the epicenter of the swine flu, declares these to be important objectives :

6 To improve the maintenance of buildings

7 To implement various national health programmes

8 To give health education for improving knowledge, attitude and behaviour of the community.

Look who’s improving whose behavior and attitude?

Aug

9

Slowly but surely, swine flu spreads across India

August 9, 2009 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

Swine flu is now claiming new victims, every day, in India. Pune is leading the list with 34 new cases recorded on Saturday. Two of the H1N1 victims died on Saturday, a housewife in Mumbai and a teacher from Kedgaon, near Pune.

The way the H1N1 epidemic has been spreading in India, it appears that it is becoming increasingly difficult to actually trace how and where the victims got their swine flu infection. That’s very scary, because in the initial period of the epidemic, the investigation and the attention was focused on the non-resident Indians traveling to India from the United States. In fact, Pune most probably got its own H1N1 from a couple of local students who traveled to Houston to visit NASA and came back with the H1N1 swine flu strain.

How did the Mumbai housewife got the flu? Asked if she had traveled abroad in the days preceding her infection, the doctors seemed to have no clue, and apparently they hadn’t bothered to check that.

As for the Pune teacher, the scary part is that he worked in a school 55 kilometers away from Pune. Meaning, the deadly strain of swine flu has already confirmedly made it inland. A college student from Pune, whose flu was detected in Osmanabad (a few hundred kilometers away from Pune) had actually traveled from Pune and carried the flu with him to his native place.

Far away from Pune, the state of Bihar recorded its first case of swine flu in a resident who had returned from Singapore 2 months ago.

The official number of swine flu cases has gone up by almost 50% in the last 4 days alone. Still, the doctors and the government officials seem clueless as to the exact protocol that needs to be followed. So far, the big cities have only a handful of H1N1 patients on ventilator or in the ICU. Soon, that situation is going to worsen and there is going to be issues of equipment resourcing.

One thing is for sure. Swine flu is going to claim many more victims in India, unless someone higher up wakes up and realizes that they have a bloody crisis at hand. And someone needs to tell the doctors that there is such a thing called swine flu going around. The doctors’ ignorance and casual attitude claimed the life of 14-year old Rida Sheikh in Pune and soon it might claim a 28-year old techie in Mumbai whose doctors didn’t think of swine flu in his case because he hadn’t traveled abroad.

Aug

4

Swine flu claims one, threatens many in India

August 4, 2009 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

Swine flu has now officially claimed its first victim in India. 14-year old Riya Sheikh died yesterday, 2 weeks after her parents first took her to a physician, and one week after being admitted to Jehangir Nursing Home, a prestigious health care clinic. In spite of the entire world knowing about swine flu for months now, many family physicians in India and the government in particular seem to be rather oblivious and somewhat casual in their approach to this endemic danger.

Officially, more than 500 Indian citizens are said to be infected by swine flu, out of whom 20% are in the state of Maharashtra out of which 80% have been located in the city of Pune. The H1N1 strain of the swine flu virus is now known to have transmitted from humans to humans, and has also hit about a dozen health care workers in cities across Maharashtra state.

Ghulam Nabi Azad, India’s new health minister, opined on the country’s first swine flu death yet, blaming the local physicians for their late diagnosis. But his own and his agency’s leadership failure along with strangely casual local networks, are far more evident now that the word has gotten out on an even worse danger lurking ahead. Riya Sheikh is said to have attended school for 2 days after being discharged from the private clinic. This, while she was still actively infected and perhaps transmitting the swine flu. But the ball was dropped at multiple levels -

1. The head of joint coordination task force is now saying he was unaware of a swine flu victim being admitted toa private hospital

2. Riya’s school is saying it was not informed by the state’s health department that one of the school’s students had gotten swine flu.

3. The state health department is accusing the National Institute of Virology (NIV) of not informing the state about a swine flu sample request from a private hospital

4. The Maharashtra state’s health secretary complained that people weren’t taking the government’s instructions about getting admitted to government hospitals seriously.

The Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta has several guidelines for people’s benefit and is the best resource for all the latest information. Here are the warning signs that should raise alarm when someone you know is showing symptoms of flu:

In children:
* Fast breathing or trouble breathing
* Bluish or gray skin color
* Not drinking enough fluids
* Severe or persistent vomiting
* Not waking up or not interacting
* Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held
* Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough

In adults:
* Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
* Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
* Sudden dizziness
* Confusion
* Severe or persistent vomiting
* Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough

An in case of even the slightest doubt, it is imperative to get tested for swine flu. One in 4 suspected cases tested in India have been found to be positive for H1N1. (550-plus positive H1N1 in 2200 tested nationwide).

And here’s the Indian government’s information page for swine flu, with specific guidelines for schools and educational institutions.

Jul

24

Countering counterfeit menace

July 24, 2009 posted by indiatime | 2 Comments

Pop singer Michael Jackson’s death a few weeks ago, prompted questions about his overdosing on drugs and the extent to which he went doctor-shopping to get those drugs, often spending close to 50 thousand dollars per month. Actually, it would have been so much easier had the pop star moved to India, where he could easily have had access to whatever drugs he needed. And he would most probably still be around, because many of the drugs available on the Indian market, are spurious and fake.

Sources from India’s drug enforcement agency is saying that almost 25% percent of the pharmaceutical trade in India is counterfeit and fake. Meaning one out of four times you are out to get a medicine, you will be buying a fake one. Officially however, the Indian Drug Manufacturers Association as well India’s Asst Drug controller reject the high numbers, claiming that the actual counterfeiting may be close to only 2-3%.

On top of the counterfeit list is viagra, the fake variety of which has now overtaken caterpillar fungus as the most sought after aphrodisiac. And it may even have made it way into the antimalarial drugs. Besides Viagra, many cough and cold medicines and cancer drugs as well, have a demand in the counterfeit market. The cough medicine, for its high volume high demand business. And the caner medicines for their high profitability.

India’s health ministry seems to be aware of the huge fake drugs issue, though. It has now announced big payoffs for those who venture to whistleblow and expose the big fish in the counterfeit drug industry.

On top of India’s own spurious drug industry, Chinese-made fake drugs with ‘Made-in-India’ labels have become an additional headache for Indian officials. Looks like China is really worried about losing its status as the world’s most populous nation.

Yes, Michael Jackson could indeed have saved himself by moving to India. He could have taken all the drugs he needed to take and he would still be little affected if at all. And he would have found out about the various ways sleepless Indians do help themselves to sleep. Watching parliamentary debates on TV, overloading on spicy food, or taking alertness medicines…the list is endless.

Jul

7

Indian man with 5 kidneys has 2 more in waiting

July 7, 2009 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

A photographer from Chandigarh, is living with 5 kidneys, and is hoping that the fifth one, will finally bring him a future full of health. 33-year old Jaswant Singh has so far had three transplant operations, each giving him a kidney from a donor within his own family.

Singh’s ordeal started back in 2002, when both of his own kidneys failed, forcing him to undergo a transplant. His elder sister Harjindar Kaur chipped in with a kidney, helping Jaswant survive for a year. But financial constraints prevented him from continuing the post-transplant medication, resulting in his body rejecting the kidney.

So in 2004, Jaswant went in for another transplant and this time little sister Ranvir Kaur donated one of her own. A year and a half later, that kidney too, failed, and Jaswant was back looking back a kidney.

He is hoping the third time will be a charm, especially since the donor is Amar Kaur, his 55-year old mother. The third time has already been a little different since the doctors have charged him nothing for the surgery.

Has Jaswant Singh expended all his options? Not yet. He still has a brother and his driver with both their kidneys intact, and Jaswant is not shy to admit that he is pinning his hopes on them.

Incidentally, Amar Singh, a senior Indian politician and a leader of the Samajwadi Party, was in Singapore this week, for his own transplant. Rumor is, he is getting a kidney from someone in his political family, a former legislator from the Samajwadi Party.

May

25

Australia’s ABC News is reporting about the case of Paul Dean, an Australian fugitive who has, for last 3 decades, moved around in India disguising as a priest, surgeon, and a charity worker.

Paul Dean disappeared from Australia back in 1976, stealing a hundred thousand dollars, and resurfaced as a missionary in India, eventually performing eye and general surgery among the poor populations on India’s east coast. He claimed to be an agriculture expert, a missionary, and a doctor. But over a period of 30 years, Paul Dean aka brother Alan left a trail of victims who he sexually abused. Caught a few times and arrested, he managed to convince the authorities to let him free, and that included the Indian as well as the Australian law.

So far neither the Australian nor the Indian authorities have shown the inclination to go after this child molester who has also abused and maligned the charitable organizations that he apparently worked with. As for the patients who the fake doctor operated upon and whose limbs he has cut so far, they seemed to be happy with his limb-cutting skills. And many locals called the running fugitive a ‘walking god’.

One of these days, we may see the Australian in doc India (walking God Dr. Paul Dean) and the Indian doc in Australia (Dr. Death - Jayant Patel)) go into a partnership that would be the first Indo-Australian medical tourism venture. An apt cultural and academic exchange, one would think.

May

21

While impassioned cases for increasing women’s involvement in politics continue being made on one side, it is also a fact of life in India that women doctors themselves are a party to female feticides, i.e. illegal abortions of newborn females.

One such case took an ugly turn yesterday when Dr. Laxmi Garg, owner of a private nursing home in Bathinda, Punjab, swallowed two poison tablets and ended her life. Dr. Garg’s troubles started back in September of 2006, when Ashok Kumar, a local resident, filed charges against her and a janitor working at her clinic, alleging that a murdered fetus was thrown or dumped by the clinic.

The police slapped the doctor with the Prenatal Diagnostics Techniques Act (PNDT) when they found two fetuses dumped in garbage behind her clinic. Earlier this year in February, a local sessions court found Dr. Garg guilty of the charges and sentenced her to two and a half years of rigorous imprisonment. The janitor who threw the fetuses in the garbage was however, acquitted.

But Dr. Laxmi Garg had no plans to go quietly. When first convicted in February, she tried to avoid her imminent arrest by getting herself hospitalized for chest pain symptoms. Her appeal against the guilty verdict failed, and so did the authorities attempt to make her pay for her crime. For Dr. Garg had carried a couple of poison tablets with her inside the court, and hearing the rejection of her appeal, she immediately swallowed the pills.

It is not known if charges were ever brought or filed against the parents of the murdered female babies. In the land of a woman president and a woman kingmaker and woman chief of the nation’s capital state and almost 10% women in the parliament, women seem to be a powerless bunch, happily or sadly allowing their lives to be run by their male chauvinist counterparts. This is what happens when you have your politics filled with kingmakers who are never accountable for anything they do, their pawns who are never aware of who does what in their names, and the vast ignorant audience who do not understand why accountability should ever be an issue in the first place.

As for little babies being dumped in the garbage, one must then attribute their misfortune to their being born in a wicked place where garbage-dumping of little babies of the female gender, has been around for ever. God, how I wish India’s politicians carried with them a poison pill for every social ill they cannot correct. And how I wish the members of the public carry a poison pill for every politician they cannot dump in garbage.

May

15

Yesterday, India’s supreme court set a medical compensation precedent that has come a bit too late for many patients silently suffering for their doctors’ negligence. The credit must go to Prashant Dhananka, now 39, who back in 1990, was paralyzed from waist down, when his thoracic surgeon’s knife veered a bit further touching and severing his spinal cord. The supreme court not only upped the lower court’s original compensation award by multiples, but it also opened up doors to those patients who have found virtually impossible to fight the powerful medical lobby in India, that has, for far too long, managed to enjoy unusual privileges without really having to account for their mistakes and errors. The court awarded Mr. Dhananka a total of Rs 1 Crores - not a huge payoff by international compensation standards, but a magic figure on the Indian scene, which is a trendsetter and hopefully a wake-up call to the medical establishment.

Months ago, I wrote about my grandfather, an ex-police-chief of a large metro in India, who went through an orthopedic surgery where the surgeon inserted a steel rod through his bone to keep his broken hip bone together. Within days, we were told that the steel rod had broken too, setting in an infection that eventually killed my grandfather. The orthopedic surgeon, one of India’s most celebrated specialists, who has apparently operated on India’s presidents and prime ministers, shrugged off all or any responsibility in the matter, blaming the whole thing on the faulty steel rods. Later that same year, I heard of 4 similar cases at the same hospital, with complications stemming from with similar faulty steel rods. My grandfather’s friends and family tried pursuing the matter, but their case was quickly dismissed by the courts, thanks to the stellar reputation his surgeon enjoyed in the community.

Yesterday’s court rule must bring a sigh of relief to those who have been begging their lawyers and the courts to see through the societal status of such inept and negligent doctors. Some may argue that such rulings will only help lengthen the list of tests and investigations the doctors prescribe. They will be astonished to find out that Indian doctors are already practising that art of deception where entirely unnecessary tests and investigations have become a routine matter (Such tactics, my doctors friends have told me, are necessary to supplement their income and often help young budding doctors pay off their loans).

But if the supreme court’s intent is to rectify the original wrong done to Mr. Dhananka, it has somewhat failed to that. The surgeon in question, one P V Satyanarayana, has shown little remorse in the matter and is still practising surgery. He dismissed the supreme court’s ruling contending that it was not a case of medical negligence and that ’similar cases were mentioned in medical literature’. It’s quite clear that the court’s ruling hasn’t hurt this doctor much, and he seems to be displaying the same callous attitude towards his patients that almost destroyed the life of another of his patients two decades ago. Whereas Mr. Dhananka came out of the OR losing the quality of the rest of his life, Mr. Satyanarayana came out unscathed, unfazed and probably more confident of his ability to manipulate the lax legal system.

Compared to most other countries, the life of an Indian citizen is probably the cheapest. Indians injured or killed in accidents or untoward incidents get the most meager compensations. The most telling example is the Bhopal gas tragedy where many victims whose lives and families and everything was literally destroyed by the gas leak in the local Union Carbide plant, are still begging for justice after more than 25 years.

Indeed, during last 6 decades of independence, there are many who have been forced to accept ridiculous and laughably little compensations for their sufferings. having said that, this is a good day and it has certainly brought a deserved smile on Mr. Dhananka’s face. Bravo!

May

5

A non-resident Indian couple in Australia is facing 25 years imprisonment for their role in their little daughter’s death. Thomas Sam, a homeopath & a college lecturer in Homeopathy, and wife Manju, an IT professional, are being tried in the New South Wales State Supreme Court , for having neglected their 9-month old daughter Gloria’s health.

The case goes back almost 7 years. Around the beginning of 2002, little Gloria Sam, then 4-months old, was diagnosed of a severe skin condition by her Australian doctors. The doctors requested the parents to seek specialist care contending that the baby’s symptoms warranted it. But soon thereafter, the mother and the baby traveled to India, and instead of the medicines prescribed by the doctors, the family apparently chose to treat the baby’s condition with homeopathic medicines.

Around April of 2002, father Sam joined his family back in India to attend a relative’s marriage and for the next few weeks, the family embarked on a hectic ’social schedule’, continuing to treat the baby with homeopathic medicines. During the same time frame, Mrs. Manju Sam herself suffered from gall stones and sought conventional treatment, but the couple chose not to treat the baby the way the baby’s doctors had recommended.

By the time Sams returned to Australia in May of 2002, little Gloria’s condition had worsened further. The couple still chose not to seek emergency medical help, further delaying any potential help that could have helped their baby. The Sams finally did admit their daughter to the hospital, but it was too late. Gloria Sam died within 3 days of being admitted to the hospital.

The prosecutor is alleging gross neglect on part of the parents, contending that the Sams put their social life before their daughter’s welfare. The neglect also relates to the Sams’ choice of homeopathic treatment, and disregard of the doctors’ advice and prescriptions on little Gloria’s health.

Some might contend that the choice of medical treatment is an individual or a family prerogative. The prosecutor’s argument so far puts the Sams in a very negative spot, where they seem to have behaved in a way that most parents wouldn’t. It would be one thing if the baby’s symptoms had suddenly exacerbated or worsened. In this case however, the baby’s symptoms seem to have worsened over a period of several months, during which there seems to have been little attempt by the parents to intervene except with a few homeopathic drops.

Actually, this can’t even be considered a case about the parents’ attitude towards a system of medicine, since the baby’s mother seems to have sought allopathic treatment when she was in grave trouble herself. This isn’t about access to medical care either, since all the parents needed to do was to show up at any emergency clinic. Their inordinate delay in doing that does reflect poorly on the way they handled their baby’s illness. They were the only ones who could have prevented this from happening, they had sufficient warnings about it, and they were sane enough to understand what the seriousness of the issue.

Do they deserve 25 years in prison for that? Here’s the thing. It’s hard to sympathize with this couple in spite of their loss, because they themselves seem to have contributed to it. It’s extreme stupidity at best, extreme neglect at worst. What they will pay for depends on where the court places them in that spectrum.

Apr

30

When pigs flu

April 30, 2009 posted by indiatime | 17 Comments

The time has come
To talk of many things
Of shoes and ships and sealing wax,
Of cabbages and kings,
And why the sea is boiling hot,
And whether pigs have wings

- Lewis Carroll (Through The Looking Glass, 1872)

Looks like pigs can fly, after all. The pig flu fever that began with a 5-year old boy on a farm in Mexico, is about to grip the other side of the globe. India has now started screening passengers traveling into India’s major international airports.

Although no native cases were reported in India yet, a non-resident Indian (NRI), flying from Texas to Hyderabad, seems have brought in swine flu to India. The state of Texas borders Mexico where the pig flu outbreak is said to have begun, and the bordertowns of Texas were the first to report pig flu deaths in the United States. For now, the NRI who brought it to Hyderabad is quarantined, and said to be in stable condition.

For public health officials in India however, the coming weeks will be anything but stable. Although this is definitely not the first time pig flu has been detected in India, this will be the first time for a major outbreak that has transmitted from pigs to humans.

The easiest way to wash one’s hands off of the pig flu is to wash one’s hands with soap and water. Covering nose and mouth while sneezing/coughing is also a good idea, although many in India find it rather hard to practice. Anything easily contagious is a potential disaster waiting to happen in a country that has a billion people (A single pig flu carrier in a Mumbai train could potentially infect at least a hundred people during one single ride to work), so pig flu is a serious deal. It has killed and it can kill and it can’t be taken lightly.

Disease outbreaks were probably the last things on anyone’s mind when non-stop international flights began connecting India to the far east and the far west. Everything has consequences, ancient Indian wisdom told us. A Murphian variant of that seems to be panning out in this pig flu pandemic. If humans can fly, so can the pigs. Who knew?

Apr

15

Letting the sleeping dogs lie

April 15, 2009 posted by indiatime | 4 Comments

If you’ve had a chance and the privilege to walk on a street in any Indian city or town or village, you must be aware of the stray dogs that roam India’s streets, hundreds of thousands of them in some of our big cities. Many amongst us go through lifetimes without ever having made peace with dogs, and are jittery and uncomfortable in their presence. Adding fuel to the fire, there are incidents of stray dog attacks in many places, adding to the outcry to neuter and even euthanize and eliminate the stray dog population. Recently a top court in Mumbai gave permission to the city commissioner to use lethal force in combating stray dogs, illustrating the seriousness of the matter.

PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) has now come out with some suggestions to diffuse the growing tension amongst the stray dogs and the stray pedestrians or motorists. Here are the suggestions.

1. Avoid dogs with these signs

- Wagging of tail in a stiff, upright manner
- Stiff body posture
- Low-pitched growl
- Raised fur on the back of the neck
- Fixed stare
- Raised upper lip and baring teeth

Here’s the problem. Not everyone walking on the street is smart and sharp enough to make quick decisions about such things. And unfortunately for pedestrians, most stray dogs are much smarter at making a quick decision about which pedestrian to attack. So by the time a person figures out that a dog may or may not have friendly intentions, the dog has already expressed those in many instances. In fact, Cesar Milan, the famous dog show host, advises people to adopt a stiff and confident pose themselves, dropping the shoulder stoop and sounding more authoritative.

2. Never disturb a dog that is sleeping, eating, gnawing on a bone or caring for puppies.

Unfortunately for the pedestrians, those activities cover pretty much everything most stray dogs do in a lifetime. And when those dogs aren’t eating or sleeping or gnawing a bone, they are wagging their tail upright and growling at folks and raising their upper lips and baring their teeth. Which is item no. 1 in PETA’s list.

3. Always ask for permission before petting a dog. If the guardian isn’t present, leave the dog alone.

Well, that question is moot for most stray dogs since one wouldn’t know whose permission to seek.

4. Do not approach a dog that is tied up or reach through a car window or fence to pet a dog.

Most of the dogs in those situations may not be able to attack and harm. Stray dogs won’t be riding in someone’s car or be inside someone’s fence, anyways.

5. Avoid patting a unknown dog on top of the head. Dogs view that as a threatening gesture.

Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood’s latest movie, speaks about such culture differences when Eastwood’s old Korean war veteran character mingles with his Southeast Asian neighbors of Hmong origin, who tell him that patting the head is a no-no in their culture. Knowing about such things does matter, especially when there is a communication difference. And dog experts do point out the importance of treating dogs humanely instead of as fellow human beings.

6. While giving a treat to a dog, place it on your open palm and don’t jerk your hand away at the last moment.

My uncle used to do that to me when I was a child, and I am still pissed off about it :)

7. Never tease, abuse or harass stray dogs.

That goes not just for dogs but for everyone else as well. Many will argue that humans outdo dogs when it comes to stray behavior. But animals don’t get to file FIRs, press charges, or pursue right to information rules. Then again, many citizens have the same complaint, too!

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