Doctors Scale Rockslides, Invoke Gods to Vaccinate Himalayan Villages

MALANA, India (Reuters) – To visit the Indian village of Malana deep in the Himalayas, a COVID-19 vaccination team scrambled over a landslide that blocked the road the day before, scaled a retaining wall and then began a three-hour trek down and up a river valley.

Despite the hostile terrain, the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, where Malana is located, earlier this month became the first in India to administer at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose in all its adults.

The steep topography was one challenge overcome by health workers walking for hours or days to reach remote villages and another was religious beliefs, as the tourism-dependent state immunised its roughly 5 million adults.

On Sept. 14, a team of five led by district health officer Dr Atul Gupta set out to Malana to administer second vaccine doses.

Blocked by the landslide, they left their vehicle with two blue vaccine boxes slung over their shoulders to manoeuvre over the rubble, climb the wall and then walk to the trailhead leading to the village, accompanied by a Reuters photographer.

Before beginning the trek to the village, Gupta and his team placed the boxes onto a gondola connected to pulleys to carry the medicine across the river gorge that separates Malana from the road. That lightened their walk considerably as they set off to cross the gorge which drops down about 100 metres (330 feet).

During a rest break on the trek, Gupta said that to convince Malana’s 1,100 adults to take their first shots in August, its district chief had priests invoke a local Hindu deity. This helped health workers cover up to 700 people in three days, he said.

When Gupta’s team reached the village on Sept. 14, nearly three dozen people, who took their first shots before the invocation, lined up to get their second shots just opposite an ancient temple to the deity.

“People were initially scared to take the vaccine, worried they would fall sick or die,” said village head Rajuram, who gave just one name, sitting by the carved wood and concrete walls of the temple. “Then I took it and others also mustered the courage.”

Himachal Pradesh’s Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur pins the state’s vaccination success to its village-to-village drive, its decision to involve local-level politicians, and the federal government’s push to prioritise immunisations in tourist hotspots.

India wants to vaccinate nearly all of its adults by December, having administered at least one dose to two-thirds of people and two doses in less than a quarter. Thakur wants Himachal Pradesh to be the fastest state to reach the two-dose milestone, hopefully by November.

Note: This article have been indexed to our site. We do not claim ownership or copyright of any of the content above. To see the article at original source Click Here

Related Posts
Leading Causes of Death Hit Childhood Cancer Survivors Earlier thumbnail

Leading Causes of Death Hit Childhood Cancer Survivors Earlier

Oncology/Hematology > Other Cancers — But excess risk lowest in survivors with a healthy lifestyle by Mike Bassett, Staff Writer, MedPage Today April 6, 2023 Survivors of childhood cancer had a fourfold higher risk of mortality decades after their diagnosis, typically from the same leading causes of death afflicting the general U.S. population, a report
Read More
US supports India’s permanent seat in UN Security Council, entry into NSG: Biden to Modi thumbnail

US supports India’s permanent seat in UN Security Council, entry into NSG: Biden to Modi

US President Joe Biden has reiterated America’s support for India's permanent membership on a reformed United Nations Security Council and its entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group during his first in-person bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House. President Biden, in his talks with Prime Minister Modi, applauded India’s “strong leadership”…
Read More
Suits vs Scrubs: The Evolving Healthcare Workplace thumbnail

Suits vs Scrubs: The Evolving Healthcare Workplace

Opinion > Second Opinions — The patient pays the ultimate price by Harry Severance, MD April 19, 2023 Healthcare administrator numbers increased by 3,200% from 1975 to 2010. From a practical perspective, this means a growing proportion of workers in hospitals and clinics are now spending far too much time transiting from meeting to meeting
Read More
Small tornado in Kiel whirls people into the Baltic Sea thumbnail

Small tornado in Kiel whirls people into the Baltic Sea

Sieben Menschen werden verletzt, drei davon offenbar schwer. Feuerwehr und Sanitäter sind vor Ort. haa. In Kiel hat am Mittwochabend eine Windhose mehrere Menschen ins Wasser gespült. Laut einem Polizeisprecher traf die Windhose gegen 18 Uhr auf die Hafenstadt. Mehrere Ruderboote seien getroffen worden. Sieben Menschen wurden verletzt, drei davon offenbar schwer, wie die «Kieler…
Read More
Index Of News
Consider making some contribution to keep us going. We are donation based team who works to bring the best content to the readers. Every donation matters.
Donate Now

Subscription Form

Liking our Index Of News so far? Would you like to subscribe to receive news updates daily?

Total
0
Share