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UP’s Sonbhadra battles virus with 1 Covid hospital, villagers rely on quacks
Sonbhadra has a population in access of 18 lakhs, mostly spread across its 1,441 villages in an area of 6,788 square kilometres, yet, it has just nine community health centres and only one Covid hospital at the district headquarters in Robertsganj.
Sonbhadra district in eastern Uttar Pradesh is rich in minerals but poor in health infrastructure and some villagers from the district’s remote pockets say they have no option but to approach quacks even when facing life-threatening diseases such as Covid-19.
Ramashankar, a tribal from the district’s Faripan village, located in the Myorpur development block, couldn’t get a Covid-19 test done when he developed cough, cold and fever around 10 days ago as the nearest community health centre (CHC) at Myorpur was about 30 kilometres away. Jagat Vishwakarma, another resident of the same village, too, could not get his test done due to lack of healthcare facilities in the area.
Sonbhadra has a population in access of 18 lakhs, mostly spread across its 1,441 villages in an area of 6,788 square kilometres, yet, it has just nine community health centres and only one Covid hospital at the district headquarters in Robertsganj, about 90 km from Faripan village, Ramashankar’s home. He says he was left with no alternative but to consult a quack.
“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 bike to CHC Myorpur. I consulted a quack instead, he gave me some medicines...,” Vishwakarma says. “I am okay now but there is still some weakness,” he adds.
He says many others who were recently suffering from fever—one of the symptoms of Covid-19 infection, also consulted quacks as they had no other option. A social worker by profession, Vishwakarma says most in remote villages don’t even know about the symptoms of the disease.
“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 said. Balwant Gond, a resident of Purvi Deohar village in Myorpur, and Laxmi Gond, resident of Mahuria in Dudhi area, echoed similar views.
Scheduled Tribes (STs) constitute 20.7% of Sonbhadra’s population. It shares borders with Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh and its villages are situated in tough terrain, lacking proper connecting roads. In case of serious ailments, people hire a private tempo or jeep to take the patient to hospital. The district’s lone Covid hospital at Robertsganj has only six beds equipped with ventilators.
“Sonbhadra has a 300 bed L-2 hospital at the district headquarters. Out of 300, only six beds are equipped with ventilators and 69 beds with oxygen facility. At present, 112 beds are occupied,” said Dr Radhagovind Yadav, acting chief medical officer of the district.
Last week Friday, the district reported 369 new Covid-19 cases, including 181 from different villages of Myorpur, taking the number of active cases to 3,600, according to official data. In the last one year, Sonbhadra has reported a total of 12,453 Covid cases including 143 deaths.
Dr Yadav says though nine private hospitals have been listed as Covid hospitals in the district, these have not started functioning yet. He also said 35 teams are deployed for Covid tests in remote pockets. The teams generally visit villages with several symptomatic people and conduct tests there, he adds. Apart from these, there are twenty mobile health teams to follow-up on Covid patients who have been 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 adds. “After sampling and testing, the teams go and give medicines to those who test positive.”
Adesh Kumar Pandey, manager (HR) at National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Singrauli, said, “Soon, NTPC is going to create a 10-bed Covid ward in its 100-bed hospital at NTPC Singrauli. Preparation for the same is underway.”
Banwasi Seva Ashram at Govindpur area of Myorpur block is involved in welfare work for the tribals and has trained several ‘Swasthya Mitras’ for imparting basic healthcare to the locals.
"In case any local or locals take ill, they have to consult the quacks due to insufficient health care facilities in the remote villages. For the locals in these villages, the quacks are their only support for getting treatment for fever, cold, cough and other common ailments," said Shubha, a member of the ashram.
She suggests that quacks are trained for administering basic medicines used to treat common fever, cough and cold to sustain a patient before he is taken to a government run health centre. “They should be told the dos and don'ts while providing basic health care to the patients,” she said.
