With the support of her colleagues, Dr. Purnima Madhivanan has created a program to train community health workers in India in an effort to alleviate the COVID crisis that is devastating the country.
In response to the catastrophic COVID-19 crisis in India, Dr. Purnima Madhivanan from the Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona has created a program to provide home care training for community health workers in India. The large majority of COVID-19 patients with mild and moderate disease can be effectively managed through home care (HC), with most fatalities among patients with advanced age or underlying medical conditions. In India, with the healthcare system stretched beyond the breaking point by more than 400,000 cases and 3,000 deaths each day, there is a crucial need for system wide alternatives to manage the current surge of infection.
The program called Ārōgyakara Mane (‘Healthy Home’ in the regional language of Kannada) will provide home care managed by community health workers (CHW) for the roughly 120,000 residents of Mysore District that will not have access to hospital care during the current COVID-19 surge. Building on existing relationships and networks, Dr. Madhivanan is working with the Public Health Research Institute of India and Mysore Medical College to implement this evidence-based intervention.
The Ārōgyakara Mane program builds on existing knowledge and experience to leverage funds and supplies in the most efficient manner possible, providing training and care to large numbers of patients in order to alleviate the crisis and save lives.
Anyone able to help support this program can go to the Sanaya International website page to donate: https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/sahaya/phrii
Dr. Madhivanan has worked collaboratively with colleagues from the Health Promotion Sciences Department at the college on this response project for India.
India COVID Crisis Panel Webinar
Dr. Purnima Madhivanan participated in a panel discussion hosted by the University of Minnesota, Center for Global Health & Social Responsibility on May 14, 2021. The webinar, titled “India’s COVID Crisis: An Equity and Justice View,” can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPinAvde27U
