Inspiring Doctors- The ‘One Man Army’ against TB
Dr. Lalitkumar Anande is the chief medical officer of Sewri Tuberculosis Hospital in Mumbai- considered to be the largest such facility in India. The 53 year old doctor is considered to be a one man army against the disease. In the last four years alone, he has communicated to more than a lakh people in Mumbai regarding latent TB bacteria.
His modus operandi is simple enough- he gets on a local train, finds a spot amidst the crowd and talks to the people with a small speaker. Of course, his campaigning is not limited to trains. He goes asking, ‘May I help you?’ to housing societies, schools, colleges, mosques and temples.
If there is a TB patient in a crowd the doctor emphasizes sneezing and coughing etiquette. But that’s not to say that he wouldn’t have suggestions for others- informing them about the significance of foods rich in Vitamin D and C and proteins- like amla, peanuts and goat milk.
“Everyone talks of active TB, people who are already suffering, facing drug resistance or side-effects of medicines. But I want the city to focus also on latent TB that we carry in our bodies. We need to understand how to keep the latent bacteria lying low,” he said.
To get his message across, the doctor usually introduces himself and the latent mycrobacterium, after which he explains what keeps it dormant and what spurs it into action.
Seizing every opportunity to campaign against TB
The doctor’s initiative started in 2013 after Mumbai was exposed to Totally Drug Resistant TB. But the government didn’t accept the term TDR.
It was in this scenario that the CMO started his experiment. It’s usual for him to visit autorikshaw stands, bus stops or even social gatherings.
“I see every moment as an opportunity. Once I was on my way to south Mumbai and was stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. I parked my vehicle and began knocking on the windows of people’s cars one by one. Surprisingly, everyone listened to the two-minute talk where I simply emphasized two things: TB is extremely dangerous and only your immunity can save you,” he said.
And there was the time when upon hearing the azan from the masjid near to the hospital where he works, the doctor rushed out and seized the opportunity to speak to an audience- a crowd of around 50. The doctor’s incessant campaigning has had people noticing, and he often gets invites from housing societies and educational institutions.
TB is one of the leading contributors to mortality in the nation, claiming more than 3,00,000 lives every year. The Sweri TB hospital alone sees about 300 patients every day. The WHO, in its Global TB Report, 2016 revised the number of cases in India to 2.8 million in 2015 and 2.9 million in the year before that.(The earlier estimate was 2.2 million cases in 2014).
“The burden will only increase if we don’t tackle the mycobacterium the right way. I think we should make peace with the organism by letting it be and always be dominant over it by boosting immunities and thus focusing on prevention,” said Dr Anande.
The doctor says that he aims to reach 1.5 crore Mumbaikars by creating clones of the mycobacterium like him.
With inputs from The Hindu
Image credits: The Hindu