The state government has decided to use the services of village quacks in the Sunderbans for providing medical relief.

With an outbreak of enteric disease looming large in Gosaba and a dearth of medical officers, the local administration is depending on the local quacks to treat thousands of homeless sick people. The panchayats too have asked the district administration to supply essential medicines to the quacks.

“A decision has been taken to take the help of quacks, who are available locally, for providing medical relief in the villages. We are drawing up a list of their numbers and locations. On Wednesday, we had a meeting on the issue. The plan is that they will be given medicines to help the victims. They will also assist the medical teams visiting the areas,” said Swapan Chatterjee, saha-sabhadhipati, Gosaba panchayat samiti.

“If they help out the victims in this situation, how can we say no,” said Sachidananda Sarkar, Chief Medical Officer (Health), South 24-Parganas.

“One must understand that the first priority should be to save the lives of the victims, provide them with food, water and shelter. This is not the job of doctors. We can set up medical camps with doctors only when a large number of people are brought to a safe place. It is not possible to send medical teams to remote islands devastated by the natural calamity,” Sarkar added.

There are only five medical teams working in the Gosaba block, which has 60,000 families affected by Cyclone Aila. In the seven affected blocks of South 24-Parganas, only 51 teams with doctors are operating at present.

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