Dr. Kartik Chandaria
“There is a reason why this particular boy from this particular culture and religion, from this
Geographical area, from this economic background, is malnourished” (a quote from a lecture by Professor Eldryd Parry at the London School of Tropical Medicine). I started to Understand disease beyond the contexts of the medical textbooks and decided to work with international child health in the polarized parts of the world where I could help share my paediatric knowledge reciprocated with the experience of local people of their disease.
With a red swiss water bottle with a sticker of the MSF logo “All MSF clinics and vehicles are weapons free zones”, I became a member of the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).I started work with MSF in 2007 when I worked in Liberia in a paediatric hospital. I completed my training as a paediatrician and have re-started my life with MSF.
Tajikistan, in Central Asia has a high burden of TB, and presumed highest burden of Drug Resistant TB in the world. With a team of doctors and nurses, I am the paediatric medical doctor starting a new project in Tajikistan, working to manage children with TB.
I write this blog an honest reflection of the work I do and the world I see, and perhaps with
the naivety of a person normally used to cycling around with (almost) complete freedom with my crazy nephews and nieces Ravi, Caelan, Meera, Aakash and Ethan Raj, eating paella cooked by my favourite chef and friend, Oskar Vegas Lopez, and the immense love of my sisters and parents.”
