Remember when in its zeal to catch domestic terrorists, George Bush and Tom Ridge’s incompetent but draconian Homeland Security Department had toyed with the idea of enlisting the mailman, the UPS delivery person and the gas meter reader to spy on US citizens and report suspicious activity? Fortunately, that ridiculously intrusive plan for "friendly, neighborhood spying" did not gain any traction.
Reuters News reports that the government of one Indian state is using the local mail delivery person for a more useful civic activity. Apart from distributing mail to villagers, the postman also brings them anti- malaria drugs to combat a recent spike in the malarial activity in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. The WHO approves of such innovative approach to disease control.
Indian postmen deliver mail, also fight malaria
"KOLKATA, India (Reuters) – Hundreds of postmen in India’s Jharkhand state are delivering anti-malaria medicine along with letters to combat a spike in malarial deaths in the east part of the country, a senior official said on Friday.
"The postmen travels everyday to otherwise inaccessible territories and knows almost everybody and they seem to be our best bet to beat malaria," Shivendu, the health secretary of Jharkhand, who uses one name, told Reuters.
"We have trained them to carry bottles of chloroquine and other medicines like pills and distribute them to hundreds of villagers and report back to us," he said by telephone from Ranchi, Jharkhand’s capital.
The postmen will not only give medicines to people suffering from fever but also monitor health in remote malaria-affected areas by filling up questionnaires during mail runs. …
"The Jharkhand government’s ways are indeed novel and can be adopted by other states for good results," said Prabhakar Chatterjee, a senior World Health Organization official."
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