What Surat can teach other cities about public health

Once infamous for its filth and the plague outbreak, Surat has now become a leader in sanitation and public health

Whether scorching heat or wet and rainy, Mamta Patel, a primary health worker with the Surat Municipal Corporation, visits 250 houses in the low-income locality of Pandesara in Surat, the southern Gujarat city known for its diamond industry. At each house, she asks, “Does anyone from your home have fever?”
 
If the answer is yes, she takes a blood sample using the ‘fever kit’, and sends it to be tested for malaria. If the test is positive, Patel gives the patient a full course of pills for malaria. If it is something else, she refers the patient to a