Dr. Sukirti Bagal from Ridgefield, CT is program manager for international programs for AmeriCares which is a nonprofit disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization providing immediate response to emergency medical needs, as well as supporting long-term humanitarian assistance programs.

Dr. Bagal received her MBBS from N.K.P Salve Institute of Medical Sciences in Nagpur, India and her Masters in Public Health from New York University. She has worked in several non-profit agencies as part of their public health initiative including the Cipla Cancer Foundation in Pune, India and American Cancer Society in USA.  While working as Director, Asian Tobacco Initiatives for the American Cancer Society in New York, she helped implement the smoking ban in bars and public places. Through her efforts, the American Cancer Institute was able to pressure the top smokeless tobacco manufacturers in India to downsize their marketing.
Currently as part of AmeriCares, she is working with Indian Pharmaceutical companies to procure and distribute drugs for disaster relief and humanitarian assistance. 

You are a doctor by training. Why did you decide to not practice medicine in a doctor’s office but rather focus on public health?

My father was in the Air Force and many of our postings were in areas that were prone to seasonal flooding. During the floods the Air Force would be involved in disaster relief to help the civilians. One of the important parts of this effort was setting up tents  to provide medical assistance and primary health services where Air Force doctors would provide immunizations for the prevention of communicable disease. I realized how valuable this was to prevent large scale disasters.

After high school I decided to go to medical school. During my last year in medical school, tragedy struck. My father, who was my idol developed lung cancer. He was a social smoker. I felt so bad that there was nothing that my medical training could do to help him with his condition.  During his last days we learnt a lot about the Cipla Cancer Foundation which helps terminally ill patients. I was impressed with their work.

My childhood impressions of the Air Force relief camps and the experience during my father’s last days propelled me towards public health. I decided that I would work in preventative and public health areas for I felt that it would help me make a big difference. After marriage, I came to the United States and went to school to receive my masters in Public Health. 

You did an internship with the United Nations. Could you describe that experience?

It was wonderful to work for the United Nations. I was able to work with giants in the field of public health. I think I learnt the first lesson in public health from the UN which is to never to underestimate the value of networking. I learnt that often a small initiative implemented by a large group has much greater visibility and than a large initiative run by a small group, thus smaller initiatives should try and coordinating their efforts with larger initiatives to yield greater efficiency in their results.

I worked on developing a report that can be used by community health workers in developing countries to be able to do early detection of problems in women and children. Early detection can lead to prevention of a potentially deadly disease and reduce the mortality and morbidity among the vulnerable population.

Peter Jennings' death has brought the problem with Tobacco to the forefront. You have worked on the Asian Tobacco Initiative of the American Cancer Institute. Why is there a need for special focus on Asians?

Asians as a group are a neglected population when it comes to research in health areas. I worked on collecting data from this population. The official number or smokers amongst Asian population is stated to be 35 %. Unfortunately this is very much an underestimate. There is no focus on smokeless tobacco which is a significant problem especially amongst South Asians.

During my tenure at the American Cancer Society, we were able to implement the law to ban smoking in bars and public spaces. Secondary smoke is very harmful and we had to fight hard to impose this ban. Since I was pregnant at that time, I was a very powerful spokesperson advocating against second hand smoke.

I was able to bring smokeless tobacco or Gutka to the attention of the American Cancer Society and we were able to put pressure on the Indian Gutka manufacturers to downsize their marketing efforts.  I acted as a liaison between ACS and other organizations utilizing extensive communications and marketing practices and techniques via media campaigns, educational campaigns, community events, newsletters etc to increase efficacy of the Asian Tobacco Control Initiative.

South Asians are usually not easily amenable to changing their habits. What methods did you use for advocating against smoking?

South Asians care a lot about their family. We showed them how their smoking was harming their family, particularly the children. We also gave them some numbers to show that they could use the money they spend on cigarettes towards their children’s education. Usually that message works well with South Asians.

We targeted the youth, the same group that the Tobacco companies target for their advertisement campaigns. This young group of people often took our message home to the parents, which was a great help.

Currently you are a program manager for AmeriCares. Could you describe your work with this organization?

It is a nonprofit disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization providing immediate response to emergency medical needs, as well as supporting long-term International humanitarian assistance programs. I am currently working with Indian drug companies to secure donations and manage the flow of drugs to areas that need it.

We use cash donations from people to manage the distribution of the drugs.

It is interesting to note that India has now become a donor of drugs rather than receiver. Does India receive drug donations at all?

The growth of the Indian Pharmaceutical industry has been phenomenal. India no longer gets drugs donated from outside India. The Indian companies donate drugs that are used in India for disaster relief.  Many of the top Indian companies have agreed to donate drugs to AmeriCares, which we can then use for distribution to neighboring countries.

Does AmeriCares provide medial assistance that is free of cost to the uninsured or underinsured in the United States?

AmeriCares has a special program- AmeriCares Free Clinics that manages four free clinics in Connecticut where we support the uninsured and underinsured people. In those clinics we do provide drugs free of cost.

Do you have any message for our readers?

I urge South Asians to speak up and express their concerns on issues close to their heart, and if we can do it collectively even better.  This will facilitate in providing the data necessary for public health research so that there is more scientific data on our population group. Lastly I urge more South Asians to get involved in Public Health research.

Thanks so much for your time

Thank you

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