What gives

I have been dealing with a lot of mallnutrition cases overtly. There are the usual ,obvious cases that glare at you from the paediatric out-patient and then there are others which are there because they have not been eating due to other reasons. We get a lot of cases of starvation.There is a common myth in the villages which says that patients who have enteric fever have to be put off food. So a vicious cycle resumes.Patients are not given food ....and then later their stomach shrinks over time and then they lose their appetite. We had a twenty five year old cachectic lady come in with a history of  fever. We screened her for everything one could think of in a cacechtic person and she came negative except for enteric fever.She had clinical features pointing towards the diagnosis.She had been treated with various antibiotics so we put her on Multi-drug therapy for enteric fever and her fever crashed by the second day.However her blood pressure continued to crash inspite of ade...

When there is no rain ,there is drought, There is no food .Two square meals ..what is it? Life becomes tougher,struggling for that two pots of water. Cycling   at four in the morning To the community well . The water is receding, The doctor talks about clean,sanitized water , We want just water,water to drink,to wash ,to cook when there is food. Will the rains ever come? I can hear the thunder In the distant sky. Are our prayers heard? Yes the rains will come and with it Malaria,acute gastroenteritis and ofcourse , The snakes will be out to enjoy the respite… Lalli has been bitten , Will she survive? The drought,the starvation,dehydration, The fever ,the   snake-bite Or the doctor’s bill.