Public Health

In senior school, each Saturday, I used to feed inmates at Mother Theresa’s Home for the Dying, in Mumbai; and play with the orphan children who were waiting to find a home.

At Pearson College in Canada, each week I interacted with the elderly in homes for the aged. From a young age, with service being synonymous with health for me, it is no surprise that I have spent much of my professional years in Public Health.

Kala Azar is one of the three most neglected diseases in the world. Diseases are “Neglected” because they afflict the poor, with no consequent profit in spending money and resources to find a cure for them. I worked for several years, interacting with patients, the medical fraternity, Regulatory agencies, multilateral agencies, and our government on an effective cure for Kala Azar that I believed could eradicate the disease from India. As a result, a one-day cure for Kala Azar was adopted by, and included in the Kala Azar Protocol, by the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme.

I also worked in Public Health for cures and disease control for Rabies, Snake bites, Dengue and Severe Sepsis.

In recognition of the work I did for the eradication of Kala Azar, I was invited by the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, on full scholarship, to attend the “Innovations In Governance” programme.