Dear GKD Colleagues, I thought you will find this information regarding the use of mobile phones and pagers to help leprosy patients in Bombay's slums of interest. Leprosy still remains a public health problem in India -- with approximately 400,000 new cases to the global pool of lepers. WHO estimates there are about 1.3-1.5 million leprosy patients with grade-2 disability in the world. The Bombay Leprosy Project (BLP) is an NGO that has been engaged in leprosy control work in the slums of Mumbai for more than two decades. BLP is the first NGO to demonstrate that the leprosy services can be carried out along with general health care services in an integrated manner -- applying physical, surgical and vocational rehabilitation -- in urban areas with enormous cost savings to the donors. Besides providing free medical relief to leprosy patients, BLP has been providing disability services to a large number of patients coming from all parts of the city, its suburbs and even from the neighboring districts. BLP has undertaken several clinical trials with newer drugs, which are of great significance in today's context for achieving the goal of leprosy elimination and ultimately reaching a state of a "World Without Leprosy". The deformed leprosy patients receiving disability services at their door-step need to be followed up to ensure service compliance and to evaluate the progress of disability status. Hence, these patients need to be monitored for a long time, even for as long as 8 to 10 years, using a team of community volunteers (CVs) trained by the paramedical workers (PMWs) of BLP. These CVs, involved in suspecting new leprosy cases among the slum population by door-to-door survey, also provide domiciliary medical treatment, monitor the progress of nerve damage, offer field based disability care and identify clinical problems occurring in some of the patients who have already completed the prescribed course of treatment. While performing these activities, they come across several medical problems in the field for which they need to seek advice from the doctors available in the Central Monitoring cell for instant consultation on the management. The advent of modern telecommunication equipment such as "Mobile phones" and "Pagers" has come to BLP's rescue to overcome the communication barrier. These gadgets enable the workers to establish contact with the Central Monitoring cell even from the depths of the congested slums and rural areas as the communication network has wide coverage (roaming facility). BLP is the first project to use these instruments in leprosy management since 1998 to establish contact with the community volunteers (CVs) working in the slums as well as remote areas, and thereafter give specific advice or instructions on the management of complications that might be encountered by them. The Parmedical Workers (PMWs) and CVs working in the field are equipped with mobile phones and pagers which have made a breakthrough in providing instant medical consultation to leprosy patients thereby preventing the occurrence of consequences such as reactions / neuritis and development of new disability, by providing instant (on the spot) decisions on the immediate treatment with steroids. This technology has been found useful in improving patient care and also in avoiding delay in communication. BLP was able to implement this pioneering step under the leadership of Dr. R. Ganapati, an eminent Leprologist and Consultant to WHO/Govt. of India. Dr. Ganapati has also been conferred the distinguished "Padmashree" award for his humanitarian service to the leprosy patients. Apart from helping the leprosy patients, the BLP has contributed several scientific articles to national and international leprosy journals and has also developed practical guides as well as audio-visual aids useful for offering task-oriented training to health and leprosy staff. You can obtain further information about the BLP from Dr. R. Ganapati, Director, Bombay Leprosy Project, 11 VN PURAV MARG, SION-CHUNABHATTI, MUMBAI ? 400 022, INDIA Tel:91-22-522 0608/522 3040; Fax:91-22-5296486; E-mail:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Best regards, Chetan Sharma-Executive Director Datamation 361 Patparganj Industrial Area, Delhi 110 092 (India) Ph# 91-11-2167230/2168017/2167973/2169162 Fax# 91-11-2166602/2243087 email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.datamationindia.com ------------ ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.globalknowledge.org>
