New Delhi Virus

For quite some time, health care sector in India has witnessed an enormous growth in infrastructure. The private sector, which was very modest in the early stages, has now become a flourishing industry equipped with the most modern state-of-the-art technology at its disposal. It is estimated that 75-80 per cent of health care services and investment in India are now private sector.  This means that a treatment that would cost Rs X would not cost 75-80% more. 

The country can now boast of a number of corporate hospitals. India is a source market for professionals in the medical field for most of the renowned hospitals around the world. The privatization of the medical sector has brought with it five-star facilities and world-class treatments. All business travelers, who would earlier check into the Taj’s and Leela’s  can now consider getting admitted to these hospitals. The level of comfort is the same plus its cheaper than the cost of the Taj’s and Leela’s. Nursing care is an added benefit.

There has been limited growth in the voluntary sector too; however the same cannot be said of the public sector. The physical infrastructure in public sector is woefully inadequate to meet today’s healthcare demands, much less tomorrow’s. Store rooms and toilets of the private hospitals have better infrastructure compared to our Primary health centres (PHCs). 

With a few exceptions, such as the All India Institute of Medical Studies (AIIMS), public health facilities are inefficient, inadequately managed and staffed, and have poorly maintained medical equipment. The ones which are staffed do not hold a high promise of their presence. This can surely fuel in tourism, for people interested in looking at 3^rd world medical infrastructure dating back to 19^th century.

The principal responsibility for public health funding lies with the state governments, which provide about 80% of public funding. The central government contributes another 15%, mostly through national health programs. I am sure, everyone will agree that government funding and its utilization is always subject to interesting stories. So, I will not dwell much into this.

The number of public health facilities also is inadequate. For instance, India needs 74,150 community health centers per million population but has less than half that number. In addition, at least 11 Indian states do not have laboratories for testing drugs, and more than half of existing laboratories are not properly equipped or staffed. The attitude and response of the staff including that of the doctors is best defined as callous. Clearly, not the set up that can be showcased to the world.

But, we have other set ups to showcase.  India offers at its own doorstep, a range of world quality hospitals and treatments at a fraction of world costs with comparable success rates and service levels directly in proportion to the high value system and natural caring that comes with its millennia heritage. 

Medical Tourism India (Health Tourism India) is a developing concept whereby people from world over visit India for their medical and relaxation needs. Most common treatments are heart surgery, knee transplant and other orthopedic surgeries, cosmetic surgery and dental care.

Indian hospitals are becoming known internationally for standards of health care delivery, comparable to the best in the world. India has the technology and the skilled super specialists coupled with sound infrastructure and professional management, nurses and paramedical staff to take on international competition. 

An added plus has been that India has one of the largest pharmaceutical industries in the world. It is self sufficient in drug production and exports drugs to more than 180 countries.

The flow of revenue via medical tourism was fuelling more growth. This cash flow was eating up revenue of the advanced countries healthcare system. There was bound to be a reaction. It’s commonly said “Everything is fair in love and war”. If there is something apart from women that can cause wars that’s money. 

An international team of scientists has discovered a new superbug in many people who have recently been in India, and they say there are virtually no drugs to treat it.

In a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal, the researchers reported a new gene called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1, which they said makes bacteria resistant to nearly all antibiotics, including the most powerful class called carbapenems. Of all the names in the world, they had to name it after New Delhi. They could have called it, Near Death metallo-beta-lactamase or Doomsday Virus or Armageddon Virus or Rambo virus. They could have even called it Osama Virus but they preferred to call it New Delhi Virus.

Lead researcher Timothy Walsh, from Britain’s Cardiff University, was quoted by Reuters as saying that with more and more foreigners traveling to countries like India for medical treatment and cosmetic surgery, he feared the new super bug could soon spread across the world.

This virus is bound to infect the health care infrastructure in India more than the any human being. This is bound to spread fast and infect all healthcare investments. It will purge out all foreign patients and it will stop inflow of dollars, making hospitals Vitamin M deficient.

I would be more interested to wait and watch if the treatment cost to common man would dip, following any effect to the medical tourism industry.

This is also a good opportunity for the private sector to open up a percentage of service and profit to the poor and needy. Whether this will happen? We need to wait and watch.. 

Barbarians

Suri, is the headquarter of Birbhum district in the Indian state of West Bengal, India.

Suri is one of the main educational centers of Birbhum. Colleges include old Suri Vidyasagar College and new Birbhum Mahavidyalaya affiliated with the University of Burdwan, Birbhum Institute of Engineering & Technology and Sri Sri Ramkrisna Shilpa Vidyapith(it's a 50 years old institution with great land mark of diploma course in Mechanical & Civil Engineering in west bengal). It has one of the oldest School of the District, Birbhum Zilla School. The other schools are mostly new, except for Suri Benimadhab Institution established in 1902.R T Girls high school and Banimandir high school situated here.Another famus school of Suri is Suri P.& C.M.M.High School.

But none of these educational centres seem to teach ‘HUMANITY’. I say this because of a perverted, barbaric act by people from this place. I am posting this article I read in the newspaper today.

“A 17-year-old tribal girl was stripped, beaten and forced to walk nude for 8km across three villages with hundreds of men molesting her all the way and taking videos on their mobiles. It was a shocking reminder of the Guwahati incident in November 2007 when a teenager was stripped and molested by a mob during an ethnic clash. An MMS clipping of the Birbhum girl’s ordeal is now doing the rounds under the name 'Adibasi girl'. And it is this footage that is finally getting the victim some justice. 

Pictures of barbaric act that took place
in Guwahati in 2007. Look at the MORON
clicking pictures

According to sources, the girls fault was that she loved a boy from another community. Police were shocked to learn that the panchayats and other local bodies knew of the incident but hadn't bothered to inform the administration. The incident happened four months ago but the girl was too traumatized to go to the authorities. It is only when the administration came to know of the MMS that police swung into action on their own and arrested five of the culprits on Sunday. 

Some frames in the video are, too, horrific to watch. The girl has a dazed, dead look on her face as she staggers along dusty dirt tracks. A jeering crowd of tribals follows her, beating drums and thrashing her with sticks whenever she stops. Little boys throw stones at her. She takes the blows, defenceless, as she uses her arms in a futile attempt to protect her honour. Men pounce on her, pull her arms apart and molest her amid laughter as the drums beat up a frenzy. 

This torture went on for hours in broad daylight, in the scorching heat of April.”

I really some kind of a catastrophic event happens and kills each and every human being alive in this in-humane place.  

Mosquito Vs Pig

Media has hopped on to the H1N1 bus once again. Each day you hear about the number of people who are tested positive. God forbid somebody dies; it’s a field day for the media. Any hospital related death gets a H1N1 tag. The numbers projected are quite phenomenal. Ask any average Bangalorean, and he would talk at length about the dreadfulness of swine flu. The biggest health threat that an average Bangalorean seems to have faced is swine flu. No amount of effort from WHO has been able to stop people from using the term “Swine flu”.

The same cannot be said when it comes to someone who follows disease outbreaks. He would laugh if someone spoke about the dreadfulness of swine flu. A google search would throw out results on how Dengue, Chikungunya and Malaria cases are engulfing the state of Karnataka. The suffering and fatality of these diseases are far more dreadful then the common cold caused by H1N1.

4,254 suspected Chikungunya cases have been reported till July-end and 679 cases had tested positive. A total of 17,374 malarial cases had been reported from January to June. Incidence has gone up in July. 

706 blood samples were tested at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) laboratory out of which 209 were confirmed positive for dengue till date. 

"There is no cause for panic among the people about dengue and Chikungunya fevers as both have been contained, they are very much under control and no dengue deaths have been reported in the state this year", …Health Secretary E V Ramana Reddy. 

Our BBMP (Bangalore city municipal corporation) issues show cause notices to hospitals in the city for not reporting dengue related deaths. It also gives a press release mentioning that there were no dengue related deaths.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/84357/no-dengue-deaths-says-bbmp.html

Our highly qualified Health minister B Sriramulu, has an interesting explanation on dengue related deaths. “Going by the Central government norms dengue death can be declared only after confirmation from the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test. But many private hospitals are declaring deaths after some rapid tests conducted through other medical kits, which is wrong,” he said. “But compared to previous years, the disease threat and death rate have come down. We have also opened 14 surveillance centres.” 

“Some hospitals that are treating dengue patients fall under the medical education department. Those hospitals don’t come within my limits. But I am discussing this with the minister concerned to sort out the issue at the earliest,” he said. Our learned minister is clarifying to the general public that if one gets admitted to a hospital attached to a teaching college then their health is not his concern. He probably should release an advisory on this regard.

Our health minister is so sure about the health of people of the state, that he preferred being ignorant about his department’s counter action to the Dengue outbreak. It took quite a bit of an effort from the media to shake him off his political commitments.

He admitted there’s a crisis. “I realize the problems of people suffering from dengue now. It’s my failure and I will try to correct the problem,”. Having woken up to the problem, I hope the minister and his department make an effort tell the people of the state that H1N1 is not the issue but its Dengue & Chikungunya.

Mosquitoes are a bigger problem compared to pig!!!

Yoddlee Yoo: A tribute to the evergreen Kishore Kumar

Its 4^th August again and Kishore Kumar turns 81 today. A day when millions across the world salute the voice that is soulful enough to fill our entire lives with music. 



Kishore Kumar was undoubtedly one of the most colourful personalities of the Hindi film world. He gave four decades of his life to films, and ruled the world of film music for the last 20 years or so of his life.


Abhas Kumar Ganguly, who changed his name as Kishore Kumar on entering filmworld can be considered as a versatile genius with so many facets of his artistic personality. He was a very versatile actor and singer. Right from romantic to sad to soulful to motivating to semi-classical to qawwali to patriotic and to ghazals, Kishore had shown his tremendous variety in his god-given voice each and every time he had stood behind the microphone. 

A Signature into our heart

Each time you listen to this genius, he gives a totally different perspective to the song. 
A sign on his gate read “Beware of Kishore Kumar”. Quite true, once you fall into the trap of his musical world it’s impossible to get out. There are weird stories of his eccentric behaviour, but does that matter when compared to his tremendous perfection in singing.
Kishore was a man of many moods and he caters to many moods. The magic he creates in people’s lives is amazing. He is a legend who continues to stay in our lives and makes life wonderful. He fills loneliness, he romanticizes people’s lives, he is a joy and he is a melancholy. He is someone who can never be replaced from our hearts.
A truly ‘Divine’ voice. Thank you Kishore Da, for being in our lives. 

CWG: Come on Wealth Games

“Personally, I will be unhappy if the Commonwealth Games are successful,” is what Mani Shanker Aiyar, a nominated Rajya Sabha member told a reporter. Sounds funny coming from a member of the ruling UPA and a congressman specially with a congress Govt ruling in Delhi. Its quite natural if you start thinking if Mani is insane.

Having served IFS for 26 years, Mani is quite experienced and knowledgeable. He is a respected politician and one of the very few learned ones. What makes Mani say such a thing about Commonwealth games which for the last 3-4 years is being projected as the jewel in Delhi’s crown?

There are reports that the CWG venues were incomplete and faulty.  While this is not surprising, Sports Minister M S Gill has other views. Gill said that all the venues are architectural and engineering marvels and no leakage or fault has been found at any of the Games venues. Gill is not wrong considering that stadiums are architectural & engineering marvels compared to old Govt buildings and leakage was tested in peak summer when there was no sign of rain. 

My good friend and a resident in nearby areas of Delhi Dr Kapil begs to disagree with the sports ministers. “To hell with him yaar, the games would be scrapped as the infrastructure is not enough. The stadiums are just not ready. The dude is out of his mind”. Clearly, Aam Aadmi like Dr Kapil (just generalizing Kapil, you are surely special) who get to see the preparation are vouching for inadequate preparation. Imagine a few drops of water on the running track when a 100 mts dash is happening. 

On a cloudy day with rain showers in many parts of Delhi, Aiyar offered, "I am delighted in a way because rains are causing difficulties for the Commonwealth Games. Basically, I will be very unhappy, if the Games are successful because then they will start bringing Asian Games, Olympic Games." Mani rain is not causing difficulties to CWG only, its causing problems to Delhi-ites too. The construction work was a bane on Aam Aadmi’s life (Kapil, you are special again) and now rain has compounded it even more. Kapil got emotional on life due to all the construction and other burdens CWG has brought on Aam Delhi-ite “its miserable yaar.. A famous poet has said: ..yahan khuda hai, wahan khuda hai. aur jahan nahi khuda hai, wahan kal khod denge..”

‘Deadline’ is not a familiar word to the government and organizers which reflects in the amount of work that has been completed. The all too familiar finger pointing is on as CPWD, the project executing agency, has blamed the organizing committee and its consultants for delaying the projects by constantly revising and re-revising designs for every venue. This is far from the earnest search for real answers and efforts to get things right! I wonder if construction would go on when the games are going on. Painting and badminton match happening simultaneously or a plastering and shot put at the same venue.  We can get the shot put throwers to throw a few bricks. 

A whopping 35,000 crore has been spent towards preparation of CWG. This is reported to be the most expensive Commonwealth Games ever. The cost is not a surprising part as there have been complaints alleging discrepancies in the contracts issued by civic agencies like Municipal Corporation of Delhi, New Delhi Municipal Council, Delhi Development Authority and Central Public Works Department among others. There have been reports of large-scale corruption and the Central Vigilance Commission is examining all contracts issued by civic agencies following complaints of alleged large-scale corruption. I hope the discrepancy is only issuing contract and not in construction work. Imagine what a weak roof could do to the head of an unsuspecting athlete.  

Mani feels it’s a matter of shame. "Just imagine if we would have spent the Rs. 35,000 crore in providing training to the children, we would have won medals in every international sporting event," Aiyar added.

Mani, if all politicians in India could be as sensible as you India would not be housing the number of billionaires as it does, at the same time India would not have as many poor as we have. It’s a pity that your sensibility is being dubbed as anti-nationalism. With the number of top level players dropping out of CWG, this would end up becoming a ‘Come on Wealth Games’ for politicians, civic agencies and contractors. Aam Aadmi like Kapil continues to bear the brunt as usual. 

POT-BREAKING performance

“He who lives in our mind is near though he may actually be far away; but he who is not in our heart is far though he may really be nearby.”…. Chanakya

Chankya is the personification of statesmanship and political craft. With the above line, he highlights a very important aspect of politics, VISIBILITY. This is all the more relevant in today’s politics. You are near people if you are in their minds. The best way to be in their minds it to be in their TV sets. Electronic media is on a rampage for sensational news and politicians are on the lookout for visibility. It’s a win-win for both. Politicians get visibility and media gets sensational news.  

When, Jagan Reddy was walking away with all the TV space, Chandrababu Naidu played the Babli trump card and spaced out Jagan, thereby hogging the precious minutes of coverage. But the Queen of TV space, undoubtedly was Dr Jyoti.

Dr Jyoti, one of the 14 MLCs suspended from the House for unruly behaviour on Tuesday, went on a rampage, smashing flowerpots outside the building. It was not 1 , not 2 but a total of 15 flowerpots came down crashing but raised the ‘Visibility’ rating of Jyoti for a lifetime. Another thing that almost came crashing down was her saree. No words needed to say, what would have happened to the ‘Visibility’ quotient.

For all those who missed this spectacle, you can catch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AkKuv4qoG0. It was indeed a POT-BREAKING performance. 

Dr Jyoti, the Congress MLC, is a postgraduate in political science with a doctoral degree to boot. She has an abiding interest in music and literature.

Jyoti, who was an MLA for two terms from 1985 to 1995 and later became an MLC in 2002, was a minister who held important portfolios of education, cooperative and transport in different governments.

While the men enjoyed the destruction and liberal show of skin, women marshals had a tough time controlling the legislator. It looked like she was possessed by some ghost of a forest dweller, who was doing some a pre-mating ritual to attract her mate with all the skin show. From a slightly different angle, it appeared like a Hippo doing a Helen number with a slight Johnny Walker & Dharmendra tone to it.

There was some moron on TV the other day, who said Jyoti is being targeted because she is a Dalit. Dude, nobody is targeting her, she targeted all of us with her daredevilry. Till about a week ago, I never know a soul called Dr Jyoti existed in this world. Today, its impossible to forget the ‘Striptease’ and ‘Mating dance’. 

Nmachi Ihegboro: God of Purity

Sidcup is a small suburban development in South East London. Located 11.3 miles (18.2 km) south east of Charing Cross, Sidcup is bordered by both the London Borough of Bromley and Kent County Council and whilst now part of Greater London, was once referred to as the gateway to Kent.

Sidcup has only one major hospital, Queen Mary’s hospital. A black couple, Ben & Angela have baffled medical fraternity in this hospital and worldwide.

The new born baby of this black couple is a white, blue-eyed blonde. Doctors at the Hospital told the parents that Nmachi Ihegboro is definitely not an albino. However, the child has baffled the genetics experts because neither Ben nor wife Angela has any mixed-race family history.

Crazy as it sounds, I am just wondering if the same would happen in India it would be quite a rave in the G-town. Raised eye brows, quick whispers, pointing at neighbors, probably even a divorce would be the events to follow.

But what actually happened is such a dull shadow. This led to genetic studies. I am trying to make it interesting with a little comparison of the Indian situation.

Bryan Sykes, the head of Human Genetics at Oxford University and Britain’s leading expert, called the birth ‘extraordinary’. “In mixed race humans, the lighter variant of skin tone may come out in a child — and this can sometimes be startlingly different to the skin of the parents,” the Sun quoted Sykes as saying. “This might be the case where there is a lot of genetic mixing, as in Afro-Caribbean populations. But in Nigeria there is little mixing,” Sykes added. (Try telling this to the aunties, maamis and grannys, Mr Skyes. They wouldn’t be fooled by your theory. To put it in a pervert language, its mixing of a different kind)

Sykes said both parents would have needed “some form of white ancestry” for a pale version of their genes to be passed on. (In native language, we call it black magic back here in India)

“The rules of genetics are complex and we still don’t understand what happens in many cases,” he added. (The fact that stuff like this keeps people busy explains the fact that unemployment levels are so slow in advanced countries. I remember seeing something like this in the climax of Ace Ventura. Local tea shop discussion would surely be brewing with multiple theories)
But the researcher added, “The hair is extremely unusual. Even many blonde children don’t have blonde hair like this at birth.” Sykes expert said some unknown mutation was the most likely explanation. (They probably should consider building a temple for the baby, it definitely is an incarnation of some God. They can name Nmachi Ihegboro as the God of Purity. A glimpse of this god is enough to wipe out a year’s quota of sin. A touch from this God would wipe out a life time’s quota of sin. A slap from this God would clear you of all sin from previous births)

Nmachi Ihegboro, the miracle God, your key to heaven. Imagine the uproar, this would create, devotees, curious people, media, not to forget the money that would flow in.