Graduate from top American college quits cushy life to help cure tuberculosis in poorest villages of Bihar



Multiple award-winning engineering graduate with a PhD degree under his belt from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is on a mission to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) from the remote villages of Bihar.



Manish Bhardwaj, CEO and co-founder of Innovators in Health (IIH), has been camping in the Dalsingsarai block of Samastipur district with his team of associates and workers to facilitate proper treatment of the widespread infectious disease afflicting a large number of people in the area.



"We identify the patients in the 16 panchayats of Dalsingsarai block and ensure their proper treatment," he said.



Manish with patients at Samastipur district in Bihar

"We make sure that they take medicines without any break during the six months of their treatment." In Bihar alone, 1.8 lakh new cases of TB are reported every year.



A majority of the patients give up medicines midway through their treatment because of poverty in the state.

Bhardwaj, who has won several awards, including the IBM Research Fellowship, has launched an ambitious programme called Aahan in association with two other voluntary organisations - Prajnopaya Foundation and the Swasti Seva Samiti - to provide world class care to povertystricken rural people.



Manish Bhardwaj has one several awards and has a PhD from MIT

Its workers spread out in different villages, identify the suspected patients and bring them to the different public health centres.



Once the disease is diagnosed, Bhardwaj and his team make medicines accessible to the patients and keep track on their progress through the next months.



Bhardwaj, who has PhD and graduate degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, had started working in Dalsingsarai two years ago.



"In two years time, we have achieved remarkable results," he said. "TB patients used to shy away from going to the hospital for treatment but more and more people are coming forward now."



He said Aahan served about 1.22 lakh people in 68 village communities which helped diagnose 1,119 cases of suspected TB.



"Since the programme was launched in July 2010, 328 patients have been diagnosed with TB out of which 204 have been fully cured," he said.



Bhardwaj said Aahan, which works closely with the Centre's National TB Programme and the health department of the Bihar government, had trained and engaged more than 70 government female health workers from the local communities to deliver the drugs to the patient.



Bhardwaj said initially he had heard a lot of negative things about Bihar.



"I was told about the abduction industry and all kinds of things but I found things completely different here," he said.



"By the time I came, the Nitish Kumar government had already started doing work in the health sector."



