First and foremost, I am far enough inland and completely ok. With that being said, I am close enough to the coast to have felt the *crazy* winds the day the tsunamis hit. No one knew what was going on... (only 3 people in town have a TV.) As soon as the aftershock threats die down and it is safe to go to the South Indian coast, I'm planning on going down there to do what I can in the relief and rehabilitation efforts. I don't have enough time at the computer today to respond to all the concerned emails I got, but I assure you I am safe, grateful, and figuring out a way to help at the ground level. There also seems to be some confusion with my ph #. From the states, you dial 011-91-2803-266-048. 10 and 1/2 hours forward from Chicago time.
Fozia, I'm sorry I couldn't meet up with you. You were out of coastline area by the time this all went down right??? Please let me know that you're ok.
The area that I live in was hit by the earthquake measuring 7.9 in 2001. They know the devastation natural disasters cause quite personally and so most of them are donating whatever they can, even those most have very little to give. It's nice to see an effort so beautiful among such a tragedy.
So many things unfolded all at once. I haven't kept up w/ this mofo. And so, it's backtracking time...
Happy New Year!!! 2005. Eeeeeep!
And, of course, an extremely belated Merry Christmas.
Quite officially, my 1st set of holidays away from people I love. But, traditions were replaced by some insane misadventures...
Xmas Eve (daytime) was spent purchasing supplies in big city Bhuj to build a community space/ verandah in the middle I live in. The actual evening, I spent under an almost full moon riding on *top of* the pyramid of wooden logs, bundles of hay, cement bags and the rest of the supplies we bought in an open top truck.
The award for funniest moment goes to ... the desert winds were super super cold so all of us huddled together ...until we found a bag of old women's clothes that we used to keep warm. This ended with a lot of tough desert men wearing women's clothing out of necessity. Hilarious!
The award for coolest part? One of my goals in coming to India was to ride atop a truck, which usually would never happen b/c men here put women's safety first and reorganize seating if necessary so I sit inside. This time I got a say in the matter b/c it was me renting the truck. No one tell Indicorps about this one!
Xmas day was spent working. The night however, we hitched a ride to a late night festival atop the temple on Black Mountain with the electrical company guys. Ate dinner with the gurus (priests), and listened to kutchi folk singers belt out the most soulful music I've heard in a long while. The moon was full and super brilliant, making the desert glow... and the view from the mountain is amazing. From up there, you can see the white salt desert, the Indo Pak border (India Bridge), and our little village.
New Years Eve, our fuse box burned out so we had no lights. I made my NY's Resolutions by candlelight under the stars. An extremely beautiful moment that I'm sad no one was there to share with me. (Everyone I love felt incredibly far away come midnight.)
Now, some business. Does anyone know why India agreed to sign the WTO product patent act that went into effect Jan 1? I don't know the history but it doesn't seem like a very good idea. It sounds like it'll ravage the already sparse medical treatments and make a lot of prescription drugs inaccessible to a big majority of the population. How does this benefit the country?
The really bad fever came back last night. Like scary bad. The strain found in the first blood test was Falciparum. The second blood test found residual strains that started with an 's' but I don't have the report w/ me. Can someone please tell me what the Dr.'s here should be prescribing so I can get better? Please?
3 comments:
Thanks for posting rups. I was too scared to call your house for one of those "horrible faux paus" or to email your bro so thanks for settling our little "collective" souls with your blogger skills.
Keep us updated on eye witness accounts of the relief effort and I'll do some research on the WTO patent thing.
Miss ya,
Vince
OMG, i hate saying this Rupal, but thats the more serious infection of malaria. Instead of aiming you for a more passive form of malaria, you had to go ahead and get the more interesting form of it. Shame on you Rupal! SHAME!!!! j/k. I hope you feel better! But you do understand, that the type of malaria you have is probably endemic to where your at? And, you can get reinfected numerous times? Anyways, the pill(s) are expensive (i think $52 for treatment (as of 2001), but i'm sure its about 60 now if not more (stupid dumb inflation gets in the way of everything!))
---------------------
amodiaquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine or artesunate. Artesunate efficacy is really good. Here's an article I found with the dose/requirements. And the drug i would recommend. I know its approved in Europe (switzerland 1999). It actually is one of the newer malaria, and has an interesting story developement. It was made in conjuction with china. I can find that story for you, i don't remember the exact details. But i have a feeling you probably don't want me to remember the exact details, or the story itself...do you?...:(
---------------------
Coartemether (artemether and lumefantrine): an oral antimalarial drug.
Wernsdorfer WH.
Department of Specific Prophylaxis and Tropical Medicine, University of Vienna, Kinderspitalgasse 15, A-1095 Vienna, Austria. walther.h.wernsdorfer@univie.ac.at.
Coartemether (Riamet, Coartem, Novartis), a tablet formulation of artemether and lumefantrine, is a well-tolerated, fast-acting and effective blood schizontocidal drug that serves primarily in the treatment of uncomplicated falciparum malaria that is resistant to other antimalarials. Initial clinical-parasitological response relies mainly on the artemether component, while lumefantrine effects radical cure. The absorption of lumefantrine is poor during the fasting state, the normal condition in acutely ill malaria patients, but with return to normal diet it becomes adequate. This highlights the need for an appropriate adjustment of the dose regimen. In the area where Plasmodium falciparum shows the highest degree of multidrug resistance worldwide, the best results (99% cure) were obtained with a six-dose regimen given over 5 days. Extensive cardiological investigations have demonstrated the high cardiac safety of coartemether.
-----------------------
I want to also emphasize that these drugs are for the treatment of, and not the prevention of malaria. And make sure you take the full regimen, but something tells me you knew that.
Please take care of yourself, and i know how tempting it is...but try to avoid sitting on top of trucks....I'm not sure, but last i checked, i don't think there are any seatbelts up there.
sincerely,
Figment
p.s. Happy New Year!
p.s.s. I know what your NY resolution is!!!!!
Its me again, Figment.
Here's the link to where to get the drug from as well as additional info. A cool (i know, poor choice of words when writing to someone in the desert) side project in my opinion would be a malaria control program(if it is a problem where you are at). I would be surprised though, considering my impression of gurjrat was to be a dessert, i mean, ahem...desert :)
http://www.doh.gov.za/issues/malaria/red_reference/case_management/cm9.pdf
Sincerely,
Figment
Post a Comment