HEALTH-INDIA: US Residents Lobby for Action on Cholera Epidemic

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Dec 11 1998 (IPS) - A group of concerned Indians living in the United States has urged the government in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh to take greater action against the cholera epidemic that has killed an estimated 2,000 people.

The governments of Andhra Pradesh and federal officials have paid too little attention to a cholera crisis which potentially could affect tens of thousands of people living in tribal or rural areas of the southern Indian state, they say.

In an open letter to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, more than 70 U.S.-based Indians, argue that while the state government has grappled in recent months with the flooding that has plagued Andhra Pradesh, it has not dealt adequately with the cholera crisis.

“While we are conscious of the burden such an extraordinary situation imposes on the government, we nonetheless are concerned at the inadequate attention that the problem of cholera has received,” say the signers, led by Dr Ramesh Babu Batchu of the Arkansas Cancer Research Centre.

One retired university head who led a fact-finding mission in Andhra Pradesh, former Kakatiya University Vice Chancellor K. Jayashankar, told IPS this week that the state government continues to play down the importance of the epidemic.

“They have not taken the kind of interest that the situation warrants,” Jayashankar says. “For the first two months, the government did not try to do anything, and blamed the deaths on gastroenteritis.” The state government also has placed the death toll at some 400 rather than the higher figure calculated by the mission.

Jayashankar says that his fact-finding mission visited a poor district, Adilabad, which it describes as “reeling under the dangerous health hazard conditions, which took the life of nearly 2,000 people, mostly belonging to tribals.” Although death tolls have taped off since peaking in October the potential for further cholera deaths remains high, he says..

The problem could be handled easily if the government can destroy bore-wells that have been contaminated by E. coli bacteria, improve the provision of safe drinking water and educate the population about health risks, he says. But it has not taken such long-term measures, he added: “Even to this day, (the Adilabad residents) don’t have a protected water supply.”

Jayashankar brought his case to the United States in recent months after becoming frustrated with the lack of official and media response within India.

As one concerned student, Sudhir Kodati of New York’s Long Island University, notes, the Andhra Pradesh government became more involved once some Indians living abroad, including the US- based group that signed Batchu’s letter, drew attention to the crisis.

Kodati, however, says that the previous lack of concern by the Naidu government – and its downplaying of even the 400 deaths it has recorded – was “much more worrying” than the outbreak itself.

Jayashankar and others on the fact-finding mission believe that some aspects of the crisis are not necessarily long-term ones. In particular, the severity of the cholera epidemic may have resulted from unusually heavy rains which hit Andhra Pradesh last summer and added to the contamination of the drinking water.

Other possible factors will take more time to resolve. Jayashankar estimates that the literacy in the rural areas is only some 14 percent, and that many of the illiterate villagers lack the information about how to deal with E. coli bacteria or infected drinking water, and some do not even try to seek medical help.

Nor is the area in which most of the cases occurred – the heavily forested Telangana region – one which receives much attention at the state level, he adds. “It may not be out of place to mention in this context that the Telangana region, of which the district of Adilabad is a part, does not have any meaningful participation or say in the management of the media.”