From the frontlines: Homeless person won over alcoholism, survived floods and defeated TB
SHOBHA SHUKLA, BOBBY RAMAKANT - CNS
Frontline healthcare workers are a critical bridge between most-at-risk people and health services
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After suffering debilitating TB symptoms for over a year, a homeless person got lifesaving help from a community health worker. Thanks to her, he was eventually diagnosed with TB of the lungs and put on treatment, quit alcohol, and survived one of the worst Delhi floods during his treatment, and got cured.
A month before the 25th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2024) opens in Munich, Germany, here is a real-life story from the frontline that makes a clarion call to #PutPeopleFirst.
Surendra migrated to Delhi from Bihar state of India in search of livelihood. For some years he tried his hands as a cycle rickshaw puller, worked in a school, and eventually settled as a ragpicker. He now lives in a temporary dismal slum on the banks of river Yamuna in East Delhi with his partially paraplegic wife and earns whatever he can through ragpicking.
Diagnostic delays in key and vulnerable populations
"I was an alcoholic, and a bidi smoker (bidi is a leaf filled with tobacco). Continuous drinking took a toll on my health, which started deteriorating. I lost my appetite and became very weak, so much so that I could not lift even a glass of water. I lost weight and there was no strength left in my body. I would cough day and night and had fever. My whole body would ache, and it became difficult for me to walk even a few steps without support. I had become a bundle of bones. My neighbours said that I had TB and told me to go to Pushta (an elevated road near the river Yamuna) and get treated for TB. They even threatened to throw me out of the slum. But there was no one to support me get treated. My wife is physically incapacitated and is herself unable to walk properly. I had no strength left in me to go to a clinic on my own. I suffered like this helplessly for over one year," Surendra said to CNS (Citizen News Service) in early April 2024.
The difference community health workers make
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