Patiala: Quack dupes AIDS patients

[Guest guest]

Quack dupes AIDS patients

Lalit Mohan, Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 1. AIDS patients in the district are being duped by quacks. They

are selling herbal remedies to them at hefty prices on the plea that they would

be fully cured of the disease.

One such quack, Rachpal Chama, popularly known as “Vaid”(traditional

practitioner in Ayurveda), who is practising in the Arya Samaj area of the

walled city, was busy attending patients when contacted today. He claimed: “I

have treated many AIDS patients. The mixture of herbs I have generated,

resurrects the immune system of AIDS patients fully, healing them.At least five

acute AIDS patients from Gujarat have been fully cured after taking my medicine.

There are a lot of AIDS patients from Patiala who are regularly coming to me for

taking medicine for AIDS. Lots of AIDS patients come from the Nabha area and

villages near the barrier. I have informed the district health authorities about

the prevalence of AIDS patients in those areas”.

“The patients in the initial stage take three to four months for full treatment,

while the patients in the last stage take about nine months”, he claimed.

Rachpal charges about Rs 1,500 per week from the AIDS patients taking medicine

from him.He said gold and diamond dust is used in preparing these medicines.

The civil surgeon, Patiala, when contacted, declined any knowledge about someone

who was selling herbal cures to AIDS patients in the district. “There is no

certified cure of AIDS till date. If someone is claiming that AIDS patients are

being fully cured and their immune system has been resurrected, he is duping the

patients” he said.

The Department of Health would collect samples of medicine being distributed to

AIDS patients and send them to appropriate laboratory for test, he said.

The sources said the quack started his business about seven years ago. Reports

in certain papers regarding his claims of treating AIDS patients attracted many

others.

Rachpal also claims to have cured cancer patients who were rejected as last

stage cases by leading hospitals of the country.

He says he gives free medicine for sugar,TB and jaundice patients while money is

charged from patients of AIDS, cancer or kidney ailments.When asked the source

of his medicine, he said, “I roam about in the hills to collect herbs that are

used in my medicines”.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070402/punjab1.htm#17

[Guest guest]

Dear FORUM,

Re: /message/7101

I am not surprised. In Amritsar it is the same story and I am sure it must be

the same all over the country. Right at the enterance of darbar sahib there is a

banner with claims of HIV treatment-it can be seen on my blog of AAG, Amritsar.

There is one person at Chetanpura who treats so many HIV patients that the ART

centre could be put to shame. i got a sample of the medicine given by him,

unofficially thru Dr.Jatinder Singh of Pharmacology department in the local

medical college- it contain steroids and opium.

Almost all patients report to us after taking that Kerala thing,who sells the

meds at around 12000 Rs. for three months and claims to make patients negative.

Yesterday only I had a patient from jandiala who said that there is someone who

made one of his friend negative .

I am really at a loss to understand how and what is shown as negative.

Can we really do something about it despite so much funds being spent on

awareness why people still go to these false claiming gentlemen is a riddle

which should be solved at the earliest if we really wanna get rid of HIV

Dr.Rakesh Bharti, MD;AAHIVS,

BDC Research center,

27-D,Sant Avenue,The Mall, Amritsar.

email-rakesh.bharti1@...

183-2277829814044213

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum

Re: http://health. groups.. com/group/ / message/7101

This reflects our Indian psyhce irrespective of caste, creed religion education

etc.We lack scientific attitude and start believing each and every matter of

little importance.

It means we have not made people fully aware and convinced that HIV/AIDS is not

curable.We must find out ways to give this message to everybody. Present system

of ad and other IEC program are not upto the mark.

Secondly, Why not analyse such people(who make people believe that they can

cure HIV/AIDS) to find out which factors make people to believe them

Why not take such people into our fold and engage them in the fight against

AIDS?

Dr. Sadhu Charan Panda

Editor, " journal of community medicine "

Asst. Professor,community medicine

V.S.S.Medical College,Burla-768017,Orissa

E-mail: <sadhucmvss@...>