Doctor From Kerala Heads To Ukraine To Treat War Refugees

A senior doctor from Kerala is heading to Ukraine to treat refugees in the war-torn region. Dr Santosh Kumar S S, who is an associate professor at a government medical college in Kerala, is part of a UN team and has now headed to Ukraine as medical director.

Dr Santosh

Has been part of similar missions in Libya, Syria

A Malayali, Dr Santhosh Kumar, has been selected to lead this team in the first phase of the mission which lasts two months. He is the South Asian Vice President of Doctors Without Borders and the Deputy Superintendent of Thiruvananthapuram Medical College. He has taken part in similar missions in trouble-torn regions of countries like Libya, Syria, Yemen and Iraq over the last two decades.

He set off to Ukraine on Tuesday morning. Since air travel is not possible, the medical team will reach Ukraine through Poland by road.

The medical team could be mainly operating in Poland - Ukraine border regions. There has been a mad rush of patients in the region and hospitals are unable to provide even primary health care, maternity care and trauma care. Hence, the UN team was chipped in.

AP

Aim of Ukraine-Poland mission

"The main goal is to tackle the issues in the health sector. We have to ensure the availability of primary medicines. Due to the disruption of traffic, many will face a shortage of life-saving medicines. The primary health care of such people is one of our responsibilities," says Dr Santhosh Kumar.

"Another area is maternity care. There are a lot of refugees and a section of those will be pregnant women, especially those nearing delivery. We are to provide ample care for those women. Those injured in the war will also be treated by us,¡± Dr Kumar added.

"When wars break out, people usually move to safer grounds. But we are supposed to stay there and help when a crisis occurs. But our basic instinct is to flee from such places."

Representational Image

Played key role during Kerala covid outbreak

"It is not the fault of the community that war broke out there. We must stand with these people as a society that upholds human values. My opinion is that more people from Kerala should come forward with such selfless services.¡±

Earlier, Dr Kumar had played a key role in the fight against Covid in Kerala, especially in setting up the medical facilities in Kasargod and training Covid brigade volunteers. He had also assisted the doctors in Mumbai to contain the Covid surge.

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