Health Museum is anything but healthy

HYDERABAD: The Health Museum at Nampally Public Gardens, the only one of its kind in the country, is anything but healthy. It doesn’t even have the minimum requisite facilities. In fact, it has been running without power supply and maintenance funds for the past six months! And, the less said about the exhibits in the museum the better. Without formaldehyde, medicated jars containing foetuses and human organs, which are by the way five decades old, have almost dried up and the place literally stinks with the stench of the decomposed human parts. Charts, which detail biographies and contributions of famous scientists, are also torn and faded.On an average, every week about 1,000-1,500 students and research scholars visit the museum which was established in 1948. Located beside the AP State Museum, it functions under the State Health, Medical and Family Welfare Department.“I felt like vomiting and had headache when I went into the museum.My eyes too started watering,” Dr MD Hasan, a private medical practitioner, told City Express. He was of the view that a visit to the health museum is not good for public health! The museum is divided into two sections.While one focuses on nutrition, the other is dedicated to child birth and motherhood. Much of the information seems outdated as is the museum’s library where the dusty books are on the verge of being useless. The museum has a lecture hall too but without a sound system. As for electricity, the wiring in the building is as old as the museum.Incharge of the museum, Dr P Krishnamurthy laments that not a single official, leave alone a minister, has found time to step into the museum.“Sadly though the State government had allotted `58.16 lakh as maintenance grant for the purpose of undertaking repairs, barely `8 lakh was spent. Much of it went into painting and repairing the exteriors. The rest of the amount never reached the museum,” he explains. According to him, it has been four years since any sort of financial help came to the museum.Krishnamurthy further says, “whenever I approached the officials of the Health and Family Welfare Department with all the complaints, I was informed that they would visit the museum and do the needful. But none has bothered to pay us a visit.” Visitors, though, continue to visit the museum, particularly during the weekends.