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.

The Indian Express team visited various islands and villages in Gosaba block devastated by Cyclone Aila to find village quacks were the only help for the sick.

In Parasmoni and Lahirypur in Gosaba block, enteric patients are at the mercy of the quacks who are charging exorbitantly for their services. At Luxbagan bazar jetty in Lahirypur around 70 to 80 patients, with saline bottles, were seen lying on the embankment. Local quacks were busy treating people there, where not a single medical team or a government official has visited till date.

Gopinath Mondol, a resident of Luxbagan and a popular local quack, said he is swarmed by enteric patients. “Everyday from morning to night around 30 patients come to me with symptoms of diarrhoea. Others come with itching and skin problems. I help them out with medicines and saline bottles, but my stock is fast depleting. There was a cholera outbreak here before the storm, so I had some medicines left,” said Mondol. When asked about his credentials, Mondol said: “I am practising allopathy since 1996. I have no formal training or a degree.”

Villagers, however, said he is charging separately for the medicines and saline bottles apart from his fee of Rs 5.

“The doctor is taking so much money. We have lost everything. But we have to pay to save my son. He is sick for the last four days. It is not possible for us to take him to the Gosaba hospital and no medical team has arrived here,” said Manisha Baidya, mother of a 12-year-old boy, who is suffering from diarrhoea. He was found lying on the embankment with saline bottle under the shade of a makeshift shop.

Relief from Mamata’s ministry
In a bid to steal a march over Left Front government’s disaster management efforts, Railway minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s attempt seems to be paying off. Relief materials from Railways are reaching the district magistrates of worst-hit South and North 24-Parganas districts.

South 24-Parganas District Magistrate Khalil Ahmed said four truckloads of relief material were received from the Railways. “Four trucks containing baby food, tarpaulin sheets, water pouches and chlorine tablets reached us on Monday. Three truckloads of relief material were dispatched to Gosaba and one to Patharpratima where it is being distributed among the cyclone-affected people,” Ahmed said.

The relief materials from the Railway Welfare Board include 10 lakh chlorine tablets, out of which five lakh were sent to South 24-Parganas and three lakh to North 24-Parganas. For children, 3,800 kg of milk powder was sent to South 24-Parganas and 1,720 kg to North 24-Parganas, as well as ORS powder. Apart from these, 8,000 bottles of drinking water were also sent to the two affected districts. ENS