Symposium on “Health care in the Indian Sundarbans: Challenges and plan for a better future” organized by IIHMR

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Health Management Research, led by Dr Barun Kanjilal, launched a report on the health situation of communities in the Sundarbans of West Bengal State on 6 January 2010 in Kolkata. The Sundarbans are a unique bioshpere of islands of mangrove forests in the river delta and one of the poorest areas in India.

The study, conducted as part of the Future Health Systems Consortium, examined the health and health care situation of the over 4 million people living on 54 of the 102 islands in the Sundarbans. Some of the key findings on health status include -

• General morbidity rate is higher that the state average
• There is a mixed burden of communicable (e.g. diarrhoea) and non-communicable diseases (e.g. coronary health disease) and injury (e.g. snake bite)
• Mental health problems are higher than expected
• Half of the children <5 years of age are malnourished
• Women have a higher burden of disease than men

These health issues must be viewed in light of the findings on health systems -

• Most care is delivered by informal providers known as rural medical practitioners (RMPs)
• Utilization of maternal health care is low
• Child immunization rates are lower than the state average
• There are serious shortages of public health facilities and trained human resources

These conditions were worsened by the effects of Cyclone Aila.

The team recommends developing what they are calling Basic Health Guard Units (BHGU) at the village level, which includes improving the skills of RMPs who were frequently found to prescribe inappropriate and even harmful medicines. In particular the BHGU should provide appropriate and timely treatment for common communicable diseases such as diarrheal diseases, respiratory infections, kala-azar and malaria.

>> Read the press release.

>>Download a full copy of the report.