Hyderabad floods: Retired medico comes forward to help victims

Hyderabad:  Few weeks ago, as colonies in the city lay submerged for days due to heavy rainfall, a brave doctor waded and stumbled through muddy waters and slush for hours to reach flood-affected areas. The retired professor of General Medicine from the Government Nizamia General Hospital was essentially one of the first ones to reach out and help those in need.  Not only did he reach out to flood victims, the doctor also ensured that people living in all major flood-affected were screened for water and air borne diseases in the aftermath of the recent deluge. Meet Dr. Md. Naseemullah, Professor, (Emeritus) of Government Nizamia Hospital, who volunteered to offer his services along with a bunch of other doctors from the same hospital with the NGO Helping Hand Foundation.  They ran are currently running medical camps in different flood affected slums since the past 12 days. Dr. Naseemullah said,“I was moved by the plight of the habitants of several inundated areas, as most families lost everything they had. The least I could do was to offer my services to screen and treat them on the ground”.
He further added that most of the patients are in severe distress and are sufferinfg from issues like high blood pressure, while others are suffering from skin infections like scabies, fungal infections. Children, he added, are  also coming down with symptoms of cold, fever and diarrhoea.
Many people who are sick in the flood affected areas are finding it difficult to access health care services as they are in need of cash and are also too fatigued. Medical camps at ground zero are the only source of some relief to them. Due to the situation, the Helping Hand Foundation (HHF) has been running five medical camps per day in the worst affected areas like Osman Nagar, Moosarambagh, Talabkata, Amanagar, and parts of Babanagar for the past 12 days.