Papers by Irfanahemad Savanur
Research Square (Research Square), Oct 7, 2020
Background: Smallholder farmer and tribal communities are often characterised as marginalised and... more Background: Smallholder farmer and tribal communities are often characterised as marginalised and highly vulnerable to emerging zoonotic diseases due to their relatively poor access to healthcare, worseoff health outcomes, proximity to sources of disease risks, and their social and livelihood organisation. Yet, access to relevant and timely disease information that could strengthen their adaptive capacity remain challenging and poorly characterised in the empirical literature. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the role of disease information in shaping the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmer and tribal groups to Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), a tick-borne viral haemorrhagic fever. Though reported from the late 1950s onwards, there has been an accelerated spread in human cases of this disease since 2014 to new states in southern India. Methods: We carried out household surveys (n=227) and in-depth interviews (n=25) in two affected districts-Shimoga and Wayanad-in the Western Ghats region. Results: Our ndings broadly suggest that, despite the generally limited awareness about KFD, access to disease information improved households' propensity to implement adaptation strategies relative to households that had no access to it. Of the variety of adaptation strategies implemented, vaccination, avoiding forest visits, wearing of protective clothing and footwear, application of dimethyl phthalate (DMP) oil and income diversi cation were identi ed by respondents as important adaptive measures during the outbreak seasons. Even so, we identi ed signi cant differences between individuals in exposure to disease information and its contribution to substantive adaptive action. Households reported several barriers to implement adaptation strategies including, lack of disease information, low e cacy of existing vaccine, distrust, religio-cultural sentiments, and livelihood concerns. We also found that informal information sharing presented a promising avenue from a health extension perspective albeit with tradeoffs with potential distortion of the messages through misinformation and/or reporting bias. Conclusions: Altogether, our ndings stress the importance of contextualising disease information (tailored to risk factors, coping strategies and alternative livelihood options) and implementing interventions in a participatory way that su ciently addresses the social determinants of health in order to bolster households' adaptive capacity to KFD and other neglected endemic zoonotic diseases.
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2021
Smallholder farmer and tribal communities are often characterised as marginalised and highly vuln... more Smallholder farmer and tribal communities are often characterised as marginalised and highly vulnerable to emerging zoonotic diseases due to their relatively poor access to healthcare, worse-off health outcomes, proximity to sources of disease risks, and their social and livelihood organisation. Yet, access to relevant and timely disease information that could strengthen their adaptive capacity remain challenging and poorly characterised in the empirical literature. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the role of disease information in shaping the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmer and tribal groups to Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), a tick-borne viral haemorrhagic fever. We carried out household surveys (n = 229) and in-depth interviews (n = 25) in two affected districts–Shimoga and Wayanad–in the Western Ghats region. Our findings suggest that, despite the generally limited awareness about KFD, access to disease information improved households’ propensity to implement a...
2022: 9(2) by Irfanahemad Savanur
Background: The telemedicine-based approach facilitates remote health, improving the quality of l... more Background: The telemedicine-based approach facilitates remote health, improving the quality of life for geriatric patients with associated morbidities. Aims: The present study aimed to analyse the cost involved in developing and functioning a telemedicine-assisted model to facilitate geriatric care in rural and urban Indian populations. Method: The HUB and spoke model has been developed using cloud-based teleconsulting and mobile-based teleconsulting approaches in rural and urban areas in India and Sweden for teleconsulting elderly population. This operational research-based study collected data on costs in implementing telemedicine for 2531 elderly individuals. Results: Majority of persons screened were in the age group of 60-69 years. Detailed cost analysis elaborated upon different categories like recurring expenses, non-recurring expenses, contingencies, travel, and human resources utilized in the setup. The cost for setting up of a hub and spokes model in urban and rural areas required an initial onetime investment of 45831.82 USD; and the cost per person was 19.31 USD per month for consumables and medications. Conclusions: This teleconsultation based model was found to be economically feasible that can be used in treating the elderly population in Bangalore, Karnataka state, which may improve affordability of the care.
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Papers by Irfanahemad Savanur
2022: 9(2) by Irfanahemad Savanur