Sonbhadra battles virus with one Covid hosp, villagers rely on quacks
VARANASI : Mineral-rich Sonbhadra district in eastern Uttar Pradesh has poor health infrastructure, the villagers in its remote pockets say. Such is the situation amid the Covid-19 surge that many rural folks are consulting quacks owing to the lack of facilities, they add.
Take the case of Ramashankar, a tribal resident of Faripan village in the Myorpur development block of Sonbhadra district. He had cough, cold and fever around 10 days ago. He wanted to get his Covid test done but could not do so as there were no hospitals or testing centres in the village or nearby.
Jagat Vishwakarma, another resident of the same village, had the same symptoms but he, too, could not get his test done due to the lack of facilities in the vicinity.
The district with a population of over 18 lakh has just seven community health centres, 27 primary health centres and only one Covid hospital.
For the villagers of Faripan, the nearest community health centre (CHC) at Myorpur is too far. It is about 30 kilometres away. The village itself is about 90 km to the south-east of the district headquarters Robertsganj, where the lone government-run Covid hospital is located. Only six of the beds at the hospital were equipped with ventilators, said acting chief medical officer (Sonbhadra) Dr Radhagovind Yadav.
The district reported new 369 Covid-19 cases, including 181 from different villages of Myorpur, on Friday, according to official data. There were over 3,385 active cases, according to state health department data on Monday. Scheduled Tribes (STs) constitute 20.7% of population in Sonbhadra district.
Situated amid rough terrain, the villages lack proper connecting roads. In case of serious ailment, people hire a private tempo or jeep to take the patient to hospital.
“I suffered from fever, cough and cold around a fortnight back. I wanted a corona test, but it could not be done due to lack of a hospital equipped with a pathology lab near my village. No health department team reached the village for testing. As I had fever, I couldn’t travel 30 km by a bike to reach CHC Myorpur. I consulted a quack, he gave me some medicines, which I took for five days and recovered. I am okay now. But still there is some weakness,” said Vishwakarma, a social activist.
He added that many other people suffering from fever in several remote villages also consulted quacks as they had no other option.
While Vishwakarma said he was aware of the Covid symptoms, many residents of remote villages simply don’t know what these symptoms are.
Many people in villages like Sangabodh and Deohar were suffering from fever and cold but they usually consulted quacks in the vicinity, instead of travelling 30 km to the Myorpur CHC, he added. Balwant Gond, resident of Purvi Deohar village in Myorpur, and Laxmi Gond, resident of Mahuria in Dudhi area, echoed similar views.
Ramesh Kumar, a resident of the Ghorawal area, said the district, which was rich in mineral resources, lacked health infrastructure. Sonbhadra in eastern UP shares its borders with Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattishgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
The district has 1441 villages and an area of 6,788 square kilometres.
Acting chief medical officer (Sonbhadra) Dr Radhagovind Yadav said, “Sonbhadra has a 300 bed L-2 hospital at the district headquarters Robertsganj. Out of 300, only six beds are equipped with ventilators and 69 beds with oxygen facility. At present, 112 beds are occupied.”
Dr Yadav said though nine private hospitals had been listed as Covid hospitals in the district, these had not started functioning yet. He also said 35 teams had been deployed for Covid tests in remote pockets. The teams visited the villages having several symptomatic people and conducted the tests there, Dr Yadav added.
Twenty mobile health teams do follow-up of the Covid patients in home isolation for over 10 days, he said.
“A Covid testing team is sent to a village as soon as we come to know that people have Covid symptoms, including fever, cough, cold and headache,” he added.“After sampling and testing, the teams go and give medicines to those who test positive,” he said. Adesh Kumar Pandey, manager (HR) at NTPC Singrauli, said, “Soon, NTPC is going to create a 10-bed Covid ward in its 100-bed hospital in NTPC Singrauli. Preparation for the same is underway.”
Vishwakarma said awareness was needed in the remote villages about wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and doing sanitisation.In the last one year, Sonbhadra had reported a total of 12,453 Covid cases till Friday, said a health official. He said 8,417 of the patients recovered and 143 died. The district now has 3,385 active cases.