Back from India

TB stickers were on many of Mumbai's rickshaws

For the past two weeks I’ve been traveling in India with one of my classmates and her family. The trip was wonderful and I highly recommend that if you ever have the opportunity to visit, to take advantage.

Partly because I love public health, and partly because my friend is a doctor, we had fun noticing the various health initiatives taking place in the cities we visited. Despite the fact that India is a developing country and resources are limited, it was great to see the government making the investment in these programs.

Here are a few public health activities we noticed:

• Crackdown on drunk driving in Mumbai through increased checks and ticketing

• Billboards in Jaipur encouraging people to cut down on their use of plastic bags- not only to protect the environment, but also prevent the beautiful cows from eating them!

• Required seatbelt for front seat passengers and drivers in Delhi

• Great HIV PSAs in Goa and throughout Maharashtra regarding acceptability of condoms (more on this later)

• Campaign to reduce noise pollution in Delhi. The car honking was previously deafening, it’s now kept to a minimum

Of course these are just a tiny sampling of efforts being undertaken by the Indian government. Although India has a host of public health challenges, it was good to see action being taken.

Health is a Human Right on NPR

Paul Farmer has devoted his life to bringing health care to the poor

“…That goal is nothing less than the refashioning of our world into one in which no one starves, drinks impure water, lives in fear of the powerful and violent, or dies ill and unattended.”~ Dr. Paul Farmer

This week on NPR’s program “This I Believe” an essay was featured by my hero, Paul Farmer. You can read and/or listen to it here.

During my sophomore year in college I hit a wall. I was extremely overextended and, just like many college students, had a bit of a crisis. I was fortunate to have several professors who put me on track again. One lent me his copy of “Mountains Beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder. Now, five years later, I still look to Dr. Farmer for inspiration.

Paul Farmer is a physician and medical anthropologist based out of Harvard. He founded Partners in Health in 1987 after a hydroelectric project forced Haitian farmers off their land and onto infertile soil resulting in widespread malnutrition and suffering.

PIH uses a community based approach to bring free health care to the world’s poor. The group sets up clinics, rebuilds public health infrastructure, and trains community members to provide direct and indirect health care services. PIH does not do its work as an act of charity, but instead as one of outrage. Much time and passion is spent working on eradicating the root causes of disease such as poverty.

“…ill health, as we have learned again and again, is more often than not a symptom of poverty and violence and inequality — and we do little to fight those when we provide just vaccines, or only treatment for one disease or another.“ ~Dr. Paul Farmer

While the work of Dr. Farmer alone, cannot solve the world’s problems, it’s amazing the impact one person can have. Many classmates I’ve talked to have also been inspired by his work, leading them to choose a career in public health. He’s also contributed to a shift in public health perspective. The determinants of health are no longer limited to clean water and good nutrition. Instead the “upstream factors” such as poverty, government corruption, and power inequity are becoming the new targets of public health intervention.

If you, or someone you know is feeling burned out, I highly recommend “Mountains Beyond Mountains.” Having trouble figuring out what to give your boss at the holiday party? Consider donating to Partners in Health in their name.