Medical supply requirements prioritised by need

First priority -
Paracetmol
Brufane
Amoxycillin
Ranidin (stomach pain, vomit)
Antacids
ORS powder
Tetramycin eyedrops
Multivitamins
Norfloxacin (diarrhoea)
Dichloromine
Derephyllin Tabs
T.NORINS-TZ for adult (diarrhoea)
NEGAMAT suspension syrup for child (diarrhoea)

Second Priority - List generated by Community Health Cell in Bangalore(sochara@vsnl.com)

Chlorine Tablets (for disinfection of water),
Septran Syrup and Tablets,
Flagyl Syrup and Tabs (Metronidazole),
Paracetamol Syrup and Tabs,
Asthalin Syrup (Salbutomol) + Tabs (Theo Asthalin),
Mebendazole,
Cough Syrup,
Brufen tablets / Diclofenac,
Metronidazole,
Doxycyclin Capsules,
Ampicillin Capsules,
Soframycin Ointment,
Nasivion Nose Drops,
ORS,
Calamine Lotion,
Amoxycyclin 250 mg (Amoxycillin),
anti Histamines (Avil CPM / cetrizine),
Derephyllin Tabs,
Ibuprofen ointment / Diclofenac ointment

Third Priority -
Cefotaxin (Injection ) 1000/500 mg
Ciprofloxacin 100 mg/200 I. V.
Fortwin/ Pentazocine
Hydrocortison 100 mg / 200 mg
Perinorm
Metachlopromite
Norfloxacin 400 mg
Amikacine 500 mg
Metronidazol 400 mg
I. V.Phenargan
Renitidine
Sutures & Needles
Pain Relief - Ibuprofane, Asprin, Dclofenac, Paracetamol
Infection Prevention - Amoxicillin
Dysentry - Diaorehha - Oral Rehydration kits (ORS), Furazolidone, Metronidizole
Anti-Bacterial - Cotrimoxazole
For Asthama - Salbutamol,
Aminophylline
Chloroquine

Other Medical Aid required
Infant feeding tubes
Dressing trays
Surgical scissors
Bandages,
Cotton dressing material
I. V. N/ Saline , 5% Dextrose
Surgical & plastering knife
Injuries Dressing - Cotton, Bandgaes etc.
Sanitary Napkins,
Disposable Gloves (for relief workers)
Face mask (for relief workers)
Bleaching Powder
'phenyl' liquid

Info on water purification chemical

The basic chemical is Sodium hypochlorite

Cost Rs. 40 per bottle of 1000ml
Good for 10,000 liters of water i.e. 100ml per 1000 liters

Kills Bacteria in ½ hr. Sediment impurities take 4 hrs to settle
Water remains potable for 12 hrs

To purchase, Contact
Ravi Srinivas, Chennai Marketing office
52031444, Mob: 9383931444

Chlorine for water purification

Water in the wells can be protected from contamination by adding chlorine tablets to wherever the drinking water is stored. COntacts to get these in Madras
- 24335025
- 28416127
- 24734298

We have info about a product from Chemfab alkalies that comes in a bottle costing Rs. 65. Apparently, one scoop of the contents of this bottle can protect 1000 litres of water for 5 hours.

We need information on availability in shops anywhere in Tamil Nadu. Please send mail to
surenc1974@yahoo.co.in and vidya_narasimhan@infosys.com if you have the address of these shops.

If you want to contribute in cash

Contribute to Prime Minister's Relief Fund: We can now contribute the money in the banks mentioned directly. In the PM Relief Fund.
The Banks are
1) State Bank of India
2) Central Bank of India
3) Union bank of India
4) Dena Bank
5) Syndicate Bank
6) Corporation Bank
7) Bank of India
8 Indian Overseas Bank
9) Punjab National Bank
10) Indian Bank
11) Allahabad Bank
12) Citi Bank
Contributions can also be sent through Money Orders with no commission chargeable. Contributions to the PMNRF have ben notified for 100% deduction form taxable income under section 80(G) of the Income tax act.
PM relief fund details: http://pmindia.nic.in/relief.htm

The donations can be made by cheque or draft in the name of "The Prime Minister's National Relief Fund" and sent to the Prime Minister's
Office, South Block, New Delhi 110001. As per directions on the subject the nationalised banks are not to charge any commission on
preparation of drafts favouring the PMNRF.
If you are else where in India or Abroad:

Payment through Credit Card, Through THE HINDU relief fund:
http://pay.hindu.com/thrfpay/thrfpay.jsp


Payment through Cheque/Draft payment through THE HINDU relief fund:
DD/Chq payable to "The Hindu Relief Fund" .
"The Hindu Relief Fund"
Kasturi Buildings
859 Anna Salai
Chennai 600 002
INDIA

Payment through THE INDIAN EXPRESS relief fund: Chq/DD in favor of
"Indian Express Citizen's Relief Fund"

The Indian Express,
3/50, Lalbag Industrial Estate,
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Road,
Lalbag, Mumbai - 400 012


IF You are Staying Abroad:

Contributors who live outside India may deposit their contributions
with the nearest Indian Mission or in any branch of the State Bank of
India for transfer to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.
Donations may also be made directly into Central Bank of India, New
Delhi/Mumbai's following accounts stating beneficiary " Prime Minister's National Relief Fund, SB A/C with Janpath, New Delhi".

U.S. $: A/C No. 000-03847-4 with HSBC BANK,
USA, New York.
( SWIFT Code :- MRMD US 33 )

Pound Sterling: A/C No. 203253-80412368

If you want to contribute in cash

Contribute to Prime Minister's Relief Fund: We can now contribute the money in the banks mentioned directly. In the PM Relief Fund.
The Banks are
1) State Bank of India
2) Central Bank of India
3) Union bank of India
4) Dena Bank
5) Syndicate Bank
6) Corporation Bank
7) Bank of India
8 Indian Overseas Bank
9) Punjab National Bank
10) Indian Bank
11) Allahabad Bank
12) Citi Bank
Contributions can also be sent through Money Orders with no commission chargeable. Contributions to the PMNRF have ben notified for 100% deduction form taxable income under section 80(G) of the Income tax act.
PM relief fund details: http://pmindia.nic.in/relief.htm

The donations can be made by cheque or draft in the name of "The Prime Minister's National Relief Fund" and sent to the Prime Minister's
Office, South Block, New Delhi 110001. As per directions on the subject the nationalised banks are not to charge any commission on
preparation of drafts favouring the PMNRF.
If you are else where in India or Abroad:

Payment through Credit Card, Through THE HINDU relief fund:
http://pay.hindu.com/thrfpay/thrfpay.jsp


Payment through Cheque/Draft payment through THE HINDU relief fund:
DD/Chq payable to "The Hindu Relief Fund" .
"The Hindu Relief Fund"
Kasturi Buildings
859 Anna Salai
Chennai 600 002
INDIA

Payment through THE INDIAN EXPRESS relief fund: Chq/DD in favor of
"Indian Express Citizen's Relief Fund"

The Indian Express,
3/50, Lalbag Industrial Estate,
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Road,
Lalbag, Mumbai - 400 012


IF You are Staying Abroad:

Contributors who live outside India may deposit their contributions
with the nearest Indian Mission or in any branch of the State Bank of
India for transfer to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.
Donations may also be made directly into Central Bank of India, New
Delhi/Mumbai's following accounts stating beneficiary " Prime Minister's National Relief Fund, SB A/C with Janpath, New Delhi".

U.S. $: A/C No. 000-03847-4 with HSBC BANK,
USA, New York.
( SWIFT Code :- MRMD US 33 )

Pound Sterling: A/C No. 203253-80412368

Some info needed - Not googleable

As you might know, any calamity of this scale is bound to cause an epidemic outbreak if proper care is not taken to ensure that the air and water are not contaminated.
With so many corpses lying unattended to, there is a high possibility of an epidemic outbreak in the affected areas.
If any of you know of a water-testing kit that would help detect contamination in the water that is being supplied in the affected areas, please let us know. Please bear in mind that the kit should be simple, portable and cost-effective. I have been googling on it but it would be better if we were to go in for a kit that has been used by one of us/someone we know.

Please mail Vidya_Narasimhan@infosys.com or Shankar_Arunachalam@infosys.com or surenc1974@yahoo.co.in

Tips for volunteers wishing to contribute their time and effort

0. Take care of yourselves; else you will not be able to take care of others.
1. Take appropriate winter clothing.
2. Take a first-aid kit for your group
3. Never visit an affected site without gloves and a mask
4. Add a disinfectant(dettol) to the water you use to bathe
5. Try to cook your own meal - if you have taken enough utensils/groceries to cook
6. Ensure that you bring about some order in the place before you start distributing materials to the affected people. This will prevent mobbing.
7. Establish a communication channel with somebody in the city before you leave to the affected area. That way you will be able to find out the needs at the site and intimate it to the people in the city who are willing to donate but do not know what to send across.
8. If you find that help has not yet reached some remote area, inform the district collector's office.

Some more tips ( contributed by Deepak Dhamija)
1) Everybody carry 2 liters drinking water and some quinine tablets. Don’t drink anything there which is not boiled.
2) Everyone carry one mask and 1 pair of gloves for them.
3) Don’t eat salad or anything which is not cooked. Preferably drink Tea, coffee or soup.
4) Everyone keep Dettol soap and bottle for washing hands.
5) Carry one small glucose box
6) Carry 1 torch each and mosquito coil
7) Avoid carrying Towels instead carry thin cloth which can be dried soon.
8) Carry 1 cap and 1 pair of slippers and sport shoes
9) Don’t carry any gold
10) Carry mobiles
11) Carry ATM cards and some cash
12) Don’t get in argument with any person there especially government officials
13) Avoid telling people that you are working in Infosys at such a post (it raises expectations)
14) Don’t go close to sea shore.
15) Take care of yourself and your health
16) Take antidiarrohea and anti vomiting tablets along with some lemon/peppermint sweets.
17) Take antityphoid tablet before leaving (whoever finds it in the market please bring 4-5 with him)

Info on ready-to-use portable toilets

Apparently, the displaced people do not have access to sanitation. Many deaths due to communicable diseases can be prevented if toilet facilities are set up quickly.
Sintex plastics apparently has some kind of portable toilet solution for this.
Check it out at
http://www.sintex-plastics.com/products/prefabs/toiletblock.htm

You can contact the local Sintex office. Look up http://www.sintex-plastics.com/lft6_contact.htm and check if it will be effective before you decide to help out with this facility.

More addresses where medical supplies can be purchased

First preference could be given to Dadha & Co., where items would be cheaper.We need to ask for Generic Products by which we get Medicines without Tax & other cost etc., this would be be equally effective as other branded medicines..Some Generic Product we can ask him are :
CIPLA,WOCKHARDT,CADILA.

1. DADHA & COMPANY,
108,NYNIAPPA NAICKEN STREET,PARK TOWN,
CHENNAI-600003
Ph. No : 25332205.

2. MOTI AND CO,
6,APPA KANNU MUDALI STREET,
ROYAPETTAH,ROYAPETTAH,
CHENNAI-600014
Ph. No, : 28110385 & 28115420

3. ELKE ENTERPRISES,
99,EGMORE HIGH ROAD,EGMORE,(Opp to Egmore Ploice Station) CHENNAI-600008.
Ph. No. : 28190384 & 28190385

Places where essential medical supplies can be purchased

In Chennai, you can purchase plastic sheets for wrapping corpses at Anderson Street. Venus Plastics is one establishment. You need to ask for 6 feet LD sheets. The suppliers give a discount if you are purchasing for the disaster relief effort.
We can purchase surgical supplies - syringes, masks, gloves, glucose bottles at wholesale suppliers in Nainiappa Naicken Street.

Both these streets are near FLower Bazaar police station in GeorgeTown, Madras.

Estimate from AID India

According to an initial estimate by Balaji Sampath, the head of the Madras chapter of AID: "The total immediate relief budget (from my initial estimate) is about Rs. 20 Lakhs ($40k). This may go up to about Rs. 40 Lakhs ($80k). (This is what we need - ourselves and the other NGOs and community groups that we are working apart from what the government is providing.) The long term relief budget needed is more than a few crores - but whatever we can get we can make use of. One boat for 50 people costs about Rs. 1 Lakh ($2500). We will need about 10 boats for each community and will be working with about 100 communities - a total of about Rs. 10 crores (two million dollars). Housing will cost about Rs. 50,000 ($1000). There are more than 50,000 people who need this help. You can calculate the total budget required! We will of course also use the government relief support and try to reach to the most needy. But in spite of government funds, there will be a lot of need for rehab support that we will need directly as well. The scale of the problem is so much that we will need all the help we can get."

New Need - Expensive Polythene sheets for wrapping dead bodies

Apparently, the bodies cannot be handled by hand anymore as they have started rotting. So, the volunteers would need help with polythene sheets which will help them just wrap the bodies and take them to the mass burial graves.

These sheets are needed urgently because the corpses have started rotting and need to be disposed of very fast, before epidemics break out. Each sheet is quite expensive - about Rs. 150 each and needs to be procured immediately.

List of medical supplies required in the wake of the tsunami

Please send all the supplies, clothes and food to:
Sneham,
c/o Infosys technologies Limited,
138, Old Mahabalipuram Road,
Chennai - 600119,
India.

Here is a list of medicines - brandnames vary by country, but the chemical composition will help you know what you need to buy.


1. dns iv infusion
2. ringer lactate infusion iv(rl)
3.dextrose infusion(ds)
4. noraml saline(ns)
5. disosable infusion sets
6. disposable syringes 2 cc 5 cc
7.disposable needles
8. metronidazole iv&tablets
9 tab paracetamol
10. inj paracetamol
11.diclofenac sodium injection
12.norfloxacin tab
13.lopearmide tab
14.amoxycillin tablets&tablets ciprofloxacin &tablets septran
15.injection amoxycillin
16.inj ciprofloxacin
17.oral rehydration salts
18.diclofenac sodium tablets
20.perinorm tabs
21 domstal tabs
22. digene(antacids)
23.cough syrups
24.baby feeds(nestum, cerelac)
25.disposable gloves and masks
26. Doxycycline

Tsunami Relief

From now on, for a period of 1 month, my blog is dedicated to information about the Asian tsunami. I will focus on getting help to South India with Chennai as the focal point. This is in order that I work on this in a focused fashion.
If any of you wish to donate money, you can donate to www.aidindia.org.
Alternatively, you can contact Indian embassies and consulates around the world to pay the Prime Minister's Relief fund.
A voluntary help organization that I know, Sneham, will collect contributions in kind and will route all contributions to the affected people.
Please send

• Clothes - trousers/sarees/shirts for children and adults
• Biscuits and bread - please make sure it is wrapped really well so that it will keep.
• Disinfectants and medicines - I will post a list of chemicals required shortly.

The future of media

Well - Here is an idea that occured to me wrt media and communications convergence.
Launchcast at Yahoo!, in effect, provides a custom radio station for every subscriber. So, here's a series of what-ifs to arrive at a plausible scenario.
a) I run Yahoo! Launchcast and am listening to something @work. I am leaving for the day and want to continue listening.
b) I merely click on a 'session' icon on the Launchcast screen and drag-drop it onto an icon for my mobile phone. The mobile phone device is recognised by my PC and the drag drop and session transfer from device to device is over Bluetooth.
c) My 3G mobile phone continues playing the song from my personal station.
d) I now walk to my car.
e) I do the same thing on my car radio. My car radio is an iPod-style player that also streams music from the Launchcast store.

Net-net, I get the same seamless experience across devices. Would I be willing to pay for this service? Maybe not. Would I be willing to use this service with commercial breaks - definitely.
Would I purchase led by the commercials ? - most probably yes.

Let me know your comments, gentle reader.

The beginning

This is my first public blog ever ! I'd really like to see how well this works.