At the next house, a girl is found shivering from fever. He gives her a shot of oxytetracycline, too, after washing the needle in cold water, and a few tablets of Vitamin B and chloroquine for malaria. Next, a man with a bloated stomach appears. He doled out a few deworming tablets and, to be safe, gave the man a shot of oxytetracycline. Biharipur's health problems are not surprising, given its landscape of cow ponds, paddy fields and a swamp that encircles the village.
Every night is a feast for mosquitos carrying the cerebral malaria parasite.
And with children defecating openly on their front porches and chemical fertilizers draining into the water table, the water supply is horribly contaminated, breeding gastroenteritis, polio and typhoid. District authorities say they cannot keep pace. Although health officials do not object to quacks, Dr. Khanna fears they prey on the illiterate, who make up three-quarters of Biharipur's population. They will not go to the public-health centres. But illiteracy is only half the problem.