Doctor on mission of mercy to help disaster victims

THE doctor who dropped everything to travel to the disaster zone was on a mission both personal and professional.

The professional part explained itself. Dr Rashid A Chotani is a professor of emergency medicine and global infectious disease surveillance at John Hopkins University’s centre for international emergency, disaster and refugee studies.

A place like the tsunami-hit Aceh provence of Indonesia, which mixes disaster, refugees and the massive disease potential, is right up his alley.

The personal part, however, was more complex. Dr Chotani has taken private time to come to Aceh and is paying his own way, although a Canadian Muslim relief organisation has pledged funding for any programmes he sets up.

He jokes that for once, in a world gone terror-mad, his Middle Eastern name is opening doors for him.

But there’s more to it than that. The day before he left his home in Baltimore, USA, to fly to Asia, his beloved niece was killed in a car crash. She was supposed to come to study under him at Johns Hopkins soon, and he was devastated.

But her father phoned him to insist that he go ahead with his trip as planned. Then he took the contents of his wallet, asked Dr Chotani to take a similar sum and told him to spend it in his daughter’s name.

Reports in recent days have given the impression that there is little need for Dr Chotani’s skills as the dreaded outbreaks of disease and infections predicted among survivors of the tsunami have not materialised.

Dr Chotani agrees, but adds an ominous warning. “It’s not going to happen overnight. Disease takes time to develop,” he says.

Malaria is first on the doctor’s check list. “What do you need for malaria? Puddles. And what do we have here? Lots of puddles.”

Cholera can also be a slow burner and as there is a seasonal outbreak in the region early every winter, Dr Chotani fears a major epidemic could happen before the year ends. His list goes on.

Limited water for washing leaves people vulnerable to skin diseases like scabies and surviving animals can spread diseases.

“We can curtail all these problems,” he said.

“We do have the means. But as soon as the world’s attention is diverted away from here, what’s going to happen?”