Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
Central team visits slums, Rajawadi hosp
MUMBAI: Coping with the tragic loss of their toddlers, Hasnain, 5, and Nuren, 3, to suspected measles, Sahrunissa and Abdul Rahim Khan highlighted a host of related issues to the medical team that visited their room in Rafi Nagar, Govandi, on Saturday afternoon. The team has been appointed by the Union health ministry to assess and manage the situation in Mumbai where several slum areas have seen an outbreak of measles.
“Give us good healthcare, water and sanitation facilities. No other parents should lose their children like we did,” a grieving Sahrunissa told the team. Nuren and Hasnain were two of the three children suspected by the BMC to have died of measles on October 26 and October 27 respectively.
The medical team is headed by Dr Anubhav Srivastava, deputy director, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), Dr Shubhangi Kulsange, deputy director at the National Centre for Disease Control and Dr Viswas Chhapola, paediatrician at Lady Hardinge Medical College. On Saturday afternoon, Dr Kulsange and Dr Chhapola, along with state health officials, WHO representatives and BMC health officials, reached Rafi Nagar where they interacted with the parents of the three deceased children and the anganwadi where the children were inoculated.
In the interaction with the Khans, Dr Kulsange and Dr Chhapola tried to ascertain whether their children had watery eyes, rashes on their bodies and fever. Dr Chhapola also tried explaining to them the importance of going to a doctor at an early stage. “There are numerous reasons for a fever—it could be flu, measles, chickenpox, dengue or something else. It’s important to take your child to the doctor for a correct diagnosis and treatment.”
Sahrunissa told the team that they had always taken their children to hospital when needed but regretted it this time. “My sons were hale and hearty before being admitted. Medical negligence killed them,” she said. Her husband added that healthcare had deteriorated at Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar, and they were now scared to take their other children there. “The doctors there discovered after several hours that the saline being administered to Hasnain was not going into his veins. We also faced other instances of medical negligence,” he said, requesting the team to see that the healthcare facilities at the BMC’s 25-bed Shivajinagar Maternity Home were upgraded.
Sahrunissa, who delivered her tenth child at the Shivajinagar hospital, claimed that she was never counselled about alternative birth control methods at Rajawadi Hospital where she delivered her other children. “The staff at Rajawadi
Hospital were rude. The staff at the Shivajinagar hospital, on the other hand, were so polite that when they explained about Copper T, I immediately agreed. I will go in for tubal ligation, the permanent contraceptive method, when my haemoglobin levels go up,” she told the team.
The medical team also visited Rajawadi Hospital where they checked the paediatric wards and emergency ward. According to a source, the team enquired if the hospital is capable of handling a large number of paediatric cases if there is a major measles outbreak.
The team is scheduled to visit Rafi Nagar on Sunday too. Speaking to HT, Dr Kulsange said,“It’s too early to comment, as we are reviewing the situation.”
Meanwhile, at Rafi Nagar, a total of 337 children in the age group of 0 to 5 were inoculated in the special immunisation drive held by the BMC after the measles outbreak in the area. Many of these children had missed out on the BCG and other vaccinations since birth.