Do no harm, to medical professionals

In this week’s edition of the Health Matters newsletter, Ramya Kannan writes about the safety of medical professionals, chandipura virus, antibiotic resistance and more

This week in health, we discuss the rape and murder of the woman doctor in Kolkata’s government hospital and the countrywide protests that have erupted from the medical fraternity. We go on to discuss the outbreaks of infectious diseases, type 2 diabetes, antibacterial resistance and more!

This week, there are indeed a number of health angles at play globally and in India, but the most pressing one and the one we will pay attention to is the horrific rape and death of the woman doctor in Kolkata. The incident comes as yet another strike for providing adequate safety and security to medical professionals while discharging their duty. For those who still remember the death of medical intern Vandana Das in Kerala at the hands of a patient who was mentally ill, the Kolkata incident of premeditated rape and murder will seem, and rightly so, as one of the most horrific attacks perpetrated on a doctor in recent times.

The body of a second year PG student was recovered around 11.30 a.m. on August 9 at the seminar hall on the fourth floor of the emergency building of the State-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital. She was a respiratory medicine PG trainee on night duty on the previous day—Thursday. The police arrested one person, a Sanjay Roy, on the basis of the remains of a bluetooth earpiece found at the scene of crime. He was a civic volunteer with the Kolkata police and used his clout with the police and the hospital administrators for easy access to areas in the hospital, police later said.

Do read our series of reports on this from Kolkata by Moyurie Som and Shiv Sahay Singh.

Death of woman doctor in Kolkata medical college triggers outrage

One arrested in connection with alleged rape, murder of doctor in Kolkata’s medical college

Kolkata doctor’s murder: Civic police volunteer of Kolkata Police arrested