Chennai: The recent case of 'Healer' Bhaskar, a self proclaimed medical practitioner who claimed to teach pregnant women to give birth safely in their home without medicines, vaccines, blood tests, doctor visits or scans has shocked everyone. While Tamil Nadu boasts of promoting affordable medical care, competent medical personnel and infrastructure, such incidents seem to question the efforts of the health department.
This is not the first time that such claims have been made for a medical procedure on an online platform. A few months ago, Roy Chowdhury, an engineer posted a video on YouTube arguing that HIV is not real, and that anti-retroviral medication actually causes AIDS. He offered to inject himself with the blood of someone who had tested positive.
Not all medical content on YouTube is credible, but there are various online medical services available at a single Google search. Not only online consultations and prescriptions, but also treatments for contraception, asthma, autism and life-threatening diseases such as cancer, AIDS and others are available at a single click promoting quackery openly.
Last week, the death of a 28-year-old woman died after giving birth to a healthy 3.3kg baby at her home in Tirupur highlighted the issue as the husband assisted her to deliver their baby at home by watching a do-it-yourself delivery video on YouTube.
Another incident took place in Theni where a woman in Kodangipatti reportedly delivered her child at home with the help of her husband and mother-in-law. She later abused the medicos of Theni Government Hospital who intervened to cut the umbilical cord, while the husband had refused to do it saying it would lead to a weak immune system.
“The online content for medication and medical procedures has become increasingly popular and reach thousands of viewers within days. The primary need is the awareness on medical science. People prefer free treatment or home treatment only if they lack money or access to medical services, therefore, state health department needs to focus on an action plan to make it easily accessible and affordable for the common man by decentralising the hospitals. We need a better network of medical facilities at government hospitals,” said Dr G R Rabindranath, secretary, Doctors' Association for Social Equality.
Such incidents raise a concern of the capabilities of such online platforms that spread miscommunication and can lead to dangerous consequences. After such issues mushroomed, the Directorate of Medical Services is set to discuss the issues with higher officials of the state health department.
Health department officials said that such campaigns hamper the access and reach of public health programmes and campaigns targeting various diseases.
“We are taking efforts to bring together members of Indian Medical Association, Tamil Nadu Government Doctors' Association, doctors of Indian Medicine Community and other associated regulatory bodies to bring in regulations on online content for medication and health related issues,” said Dr Banumathi, deputy director of health.
Officials at department of medical services are trying to strengthen surveillance and fortify their efforts against online quackery with many online medical treatment platforms coming up every day.
Health minister’s take
Speaking to reporters at Aranthangi in Pudukottai, health minister C Vijayabaskar refused suggestions that people could be resorting to these kinds of 'nature' child deliveries because private hospitals are milking the families by forcing caesarean deliveries to make money.
Health minister said that caesarean deliveries “are resorted to extreme situations" and not as a matter of routine. He said that the government has been constantly reviewing all caesarean deliveries in the state and would step up efforts to monitor in order to ensure that there is no misuse by any medical institutions”.
Health minister also insisted that deliveries should be done only in recognized medical institutions with adequate facilities to prevent complications and post natal deaths. He reminded that Tamil Nadu has low maternal mortality rate of 62 per lakh live births in the state. The health department aims to reduce the maternal mortality rate (MMR) to as low as 30 as part of its vision 2030. Earlier, health secretary J Radhakrishnan had said that the Health Management Information System data records an MMR of 62 currently.
