Archive for the ‘Healthcare’

  • 1 Nov, 2012
  • 9 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Healthcare

Beyond the Canals: A Sri Lankan Dental Story

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August In August of this year, I had a tooth that was hurting a lot. I’ve had several root canals done in Central America. I knew that I’d been given the opportunity to internationalize my mouth yet again. I had been to see this dentist before. His office is on Havelock Road in Colombo 6. (Actually, after taking another look at his card it looks like he has two offices. He’s listed another location on Kirula Road in Colombo 5). The afternoon I arrived for the procedure, the dentist’s office was teeming with people. Some were undoubtedly walk-ins, meaning that they would not be going before me. But it looked like several others actually had appointments. By the time I got in to see the dentist he was more than an hour behind schedule. I lay down. He took a quick look. He already suspected that I needed a root canal in my back-right tooth, the one on top. He’d…

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Science and Politics of Mass Kidney Failure in Sri Lanka

Map courtesy Nephrology Times Sep 2008

Much of Sri Lanka’s Dry Zone is currently grappling with a drought caused by the delayed Monsoon. This is a double whammy for residents in several districts who have been engulfed by another ‘slow emergency’ for two decades: mass scale kidney failure affecting large numbers. Diabetes or high blood pressure can lead to kidney failure. But beginning in the 1990s, thousands of people in the North Central Province (NCP) developed the condition without having either factor. Most were male farmers. This puzzled doctors and other researchers who struggled to understand how and why. It was soon assigned an official name: Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown etiology (abbreviated as CKDu). CKDu has evolved into a humanitarian tragedy on a mass scale. It is claiming more victims every passing year, spreading to more areas, and gradually overwhelming the healthcare system. Its causes are still unclear and hotly debated. Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa Districts are ‘Ground Zero’ of this mysterious ailment for which there…

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A man, a magistrate and 220 intimates: A reflection of the HIV response in Sri Lanka

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Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters, courtesy Council on Foreign Relations blog 2012: A man dies of AIDS in prison. A magistrate orders all 220 inmates that shared his ward to get tested. 2011: The National HIV/AIDS Policy was passed by parliament. Article 3.6 of the policy states that – “The Government of Sri Lanka promotes voluntary confidential counseling and testing, recognizing that mandatory testing would drive those at high risk of HIV infection beyond reach and prevent their access to public health preventive activities and other health services” Now, apparently the magistrate has no idea of this groundbreaking policy in the region – even India with their significant HIV burden still sit on their HIV Bill that was drafted in 2006. Yet, as we unpack this, should our concern be the magistrate’s ignorance of a relatively new policy or his apparent ignorance with regards to HIV transmission? In all fairness, he is treating this as he would any other communicable disease.  And…

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Too brown, Too dark, Too Ugly

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Top left to bottom: Advertisements for Fair & Lovely, Clean and Dry Intimate Wash and Vaseline’s Fair & Handsome, from Meets Obsession Recently, a close member in my family gave birth to a beautiful boy. I have yet to visit her, but I have seen a picture of the tiny infant. He is adorable. Although, we must all admit that newborns are quite odd-looking with their squishy faces, slightly flattened head, and half-opened eyes that seem too large for their faces. But gazing at the picture, I could see my mother in the corner of my eye, waiting for a chance to comment on something that I had not picked up when looking at the photograph – the colour of his skin. This angered me. Not surprisingly, I must say as this is just one of those random moments where I remain completely baffled by the way my family thinks. She went on about how my family members, including the…

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Sexist doctors: Speak up, talk about it

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Image courtesy Women’s Views on News The lady in front of me in the queue put a packet of condoms on the counter and we both could see the cashier’s eyes flicker over her left hand, obviously checking if she was married. Not seeing one, he looked at her and smirked. I watched her look at him straight in the eye and I’m sure we both almost wished he would say something. I know I wanted to give his judgmental mind a lecture he would never forget. Watching this reminded me of a story I had been told a few years ago by a friend who was intent on spreading the word about a gynaecologist in Colombo who had put a colleague of hers through an extremely humiliating experience. Let’s call her M. So M had gone to see this gynaecologist regarding an issue she was having and during the routine questioning at the beginning she had given her basic…

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In conversation with Prof. Harendra De Silva

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In this video, Prof. Harendra De Silva – one of Sri Lanka’s best known paediatricians – speaks about the challenges to child health and safety in Sri Lanka. Speaking about malnourishment, Prof. De Silva talks about the continued manifestation of malnutrition (referring to both under nourishment as well as obesity) among children, with one of the worst records on this score in the region. Prof. De Silva also touches on the sexual abuse of children, focussing on the sexual abuse by members of the immediate or extended family, which is more prevalent that abuse by strangers, including foreigners. As noted on the web, Discerning that a comprehensive and directed movement to prevent every kind of child abuse in Sri Lanka would not readily arise from among the few concerned non-government agencies and professionals, Professor de Silva doggedly pursued the need for immediate national level intervention. His efforts culminated in the founding of the National Child Protection Authority in 1999, the…

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World AIDS Day is passed. Let’s begin forgetting again.

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This was the first World AIDS Day I chose to ignore. The first World AIDS Day that I tried to boycott. Every year since I got into this business, December 1st has been a significant day. Now, I struggle to recall why. In India, World AIDS day for us in Pune was about awareness and education. It was the day that the rest of world danced to the beat of our drum. Workplaces opened up to us, schools and universities invited us in, and we got an opportunity to talk about HIV, about people that live with it, and how people continue to die of AIDS in the age of antiretroviral therapy (ART). I remember feeling grateful that there was such a day, an opening, an opportunity to share our messages of prevention and support. With every year that has passed, I have grown less grateful for the day.  Now, all I feel is disappointment at how empty the dance…

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Resource or Burden? A different perspective on the elderly in Sri Lanka

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Image courtesy World Bank The elderly, usually grouped into those over 60 years, are often looked at as a vulnerable or dependent group in society, sometimes even as a burden. How reasonable is it though to make this generalisation? Those older than 60 years are, for some purposes, disaggregated as the ‘young old’ (60 to 74 years), the ‘old’ (75 to 80 years) and the ‘old old’ (over 80). Within this group there exists a wealth of knowledge, skills and capabilities, along with varying degrees of willingness to participate in society. In reality all older people do not stop working and contributing to society when they turn 60. Should the elderly be allowed greater freedom and opportunity to participate in society if they so desire and how can we make this possible? Do labour force trends matter?  Elders continue to participate in economic activities into the later years of their life. As Vodopivec and Arunatilake (2008) suggest labour force participation trends…

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There is an urgent need for psychological assistance in the North

Apputhurai Arumainathan

Jaffna: Two years ago, Sri Lanka’s three decade long war ended in May 2009. But, those who witnessed the brutality of the war are still suffering and struggling to forget the traumatic past. Apputhurai Arumainathan (53) is one among many. He lost his wife Gunaambaal Arumainathan (50) in the last phase of the war in Vanni. “My wife was killed in a shell attack, when she went to the shop on 28th of April 2009 in Mullivaaikkaal. She got injured in her waist, and died on the spot” says Apputhurai Arumainathan with pain in his heart. Like many others Apputhurai Arumainathan too got displaced many times, and spent time in the internally displaced camp in Vavuniya. Finally, he managed to physically relocate himself in Jaffna peninsula with his other relatives. But he still struggles to forget his traumatic memories. Roman Catholic priest and a trained psychologist Father Damian Soosaipillai is helping the war affected children and widows in Jaffna. The…

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Subsidizing Addiction?

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‘Ware the mesmerizer he gives you flowers with his right hand and steals your gold with his left’ It was with this that I opened my article on ‘wildlife conservation’ in 1979. I was being confronted to a national extinction of the in-situ wildlife populations within anthropogenic ecosystems. In other words,  the huge diversity of our native wildlife that shared our gardens, ranging from the large Papilionid butterflies to the flycatchers, from the Osbekia bushes to the Vanda clumps, were doomed to extinction from our gardens by the indiscriminate use of agro-toxins promoted by companies, whose leaders were advising the nation on wildlife conservation. The result lies before us; our gardens are bereft of the biodiversity that they once contained. At that time sodium arsenate was the preferred weedicide, DDT was the preferred insecticide; not only did they it destroy the biodiversity in the areas applied, but over time grew to become toxic to humans. The danger of biological magnification…

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From Haiti Hell: Perspectives from the ground a year after the earthquake

Medic Alison with baby Alison, her 134th baby delivery

Words Hugh Bohane. Pictures Alison Thompson. Australian nurse, filmmaker and author Alison Thompson is making a name for herself, selflessly volunteering to help in dangerous global calamities, such as in the aftermath of the 2004 Asian Tsunami – and now in Haiti. When the Haiti earthquake struck in January 2010, her buddy, two-time Academy Award-winning actor Sean Penn (who had previously backed her Third Wave film about the Tsunami in Sri Lanka) asked if she was interested in joining him in an important Haiti relief effort. Alison and Sean have been working together in Haiti ever since then, setting up their own NGO’s and making a very real difference to relieve the Haitian people’s suffering. Both have received awards for their efforts. Alison was awarded the (OAM) Medal of the Order of Australia (general division), while Sean was awarded the Hollywood Humanitarian Honor for his work in Haiti. This from a letter Alison wrote to her parents from the field…

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Brief Notes on Mental Health & Psychosocial Support after 2011 Batticaloa Floods

Dr. T. Gadambanathan & Ananda Galappatti The following is a brief response to queries we have received about what considerations should be made during the recovery phase of the flood disaster with regards the possible mental health and psychosocial impacts on affected people.  As individuals and families return to their communities and homes from temporary camps, the relief effort is due to transition towards meeting the needs of restoring shelters, resuscitating livelihoods and repairing infrastructure.  In terms of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) needs, we note the important differences between the recent flood disaster and either the 2004 Tsunami or prolonged armed conflict in Sri Lanka.  The experience of the recent floods has not produced the same severity nor complexity of impacts on either psychological (ie. primary trauma) or social dimensions of the affected people’s lives.  Therefore, we suggest an approach to assisting recovery that is primarily built on a) integration MHPSS considerations into mainstream relief and recovery programmes,…

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UPDATE: Google Map on Flood-affected areas in Sri Lanka

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View Flood-affected areas in Sri Lanka – January 2011 in a larger map The map above identifies the main flood-affected regions, sites where relief and rescue operations have been conducted, areas prone to landslides and specific locations that are at risk.  Please click on the link below the map to view it on a larger screen. You may click on individual markers for detailed information and zoom in to view the location of specific shelter camps located in the east. Please note that this map is updated as soon as the Editors of Groundviews receive detailed information and reports from the ground. After our last updated post on 12 January 2011, a Daily Mirror SMS update at 12:50PM reported that there were 21 deaths and over 1,000,000 people affected as a result of the floods and bad weather that continues to devastate these regions. The Eastern Province is the worst affected with over 860,000 flood victims according to the latest figures…

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UPDATE: Situation report on flood-affected areas and a call for assistance

The Editors of Groundviews have received several updates during the course of the day confirming that the situation on the ground is quite severe and we now have a humanitarian crisis in those flood-affected regions with over 950,000 individuals affected from over 250,000 families. The Disaster Management Centre has confirmed as of 1:00PM today that 18 people have been killed and 47 have been injured as a result of the floods. Ada Dernana notes the following in a news story published today, Director General of the DMC, Major General Gamini Hettiarachchi speaking at the media conference said that 11,338 homes had been partially damaged while 1,609 homes had been fully damaged. He added that around 200 tanks had also been damaged in the floods. Meanwhile, P.B. Samarasinghe, Director General of the Meteorological Department said that rains are expected for the next three days while this was the heaviest rains that the country had witnessed in over thirty years. (Emphasis ours.)…

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Dementia in Sri Lanka: A conversation with Tami Tamitegama

Tami Tamitegama is the President of the Lanka Alzheimer’s Foundation. Dementia is a global and growing problem, and when juxtaposed with Sri Lanka’s ageing population, places demands on our healthcare system the country is ill-placed to meet, and hasn’t even planned for. This conversation was recorded a few days after World Alzheimer’s Day and touches on the social and health dimensions of dementia and the mindset change necessary to tackle it. Tami also talks in depth about active ageing, and how the aged can and must be fully active members of society. The WHO defines active ageing as the “continuing participation in social, economic, cultural, spiritual and civic affairs, not just the ability to be physically active or to participate in the labour force.” Repost This Article

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About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

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