COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

The Rediff Special/D Jose

Healer Or Hoax?

Ayurvedic practitioner T A Majeed is a worried -- and angry -- man. Majeed's argument is that the caucus, which has been touting a very expensive allopathic drug, is hell bent on ruining the credibility of his own "cheaper, simpler, and more effective" cure.

"They say I am injecting steroids into AIDS patients. That is not true -- I have been giving out only syrups and tablets, no injections are involved at all. They say that people are dying because of my drugs. That is not true -- to prove my point, I will volunteer to be injected with the AIDS virus, because I know that with my own medicine, I can cure myself in 45 days."

That is as emphatic a challenge as you can get, and Majeed says he is ready to be put to the test, before any competent body, at any time.

Not content with a defence of his own 'miracle cure', Majeed is now on the warpath against the "Bombay-caucus". "A multinational company has put on the market a drug called 'Cocktail' (developed, incidentally, by Dr Ho, Time magazine's Man of the Year for 1996). It costs Rs 2.1 million per patient, while my treatment, based on Ayurvedic principles, costs a mere Rs 6,000. This is why they are out to kill me and my medicine both," alleges Majeed.

Attacking 'Cocktail', Majeed alleges that it contains 'azt', which has the further drawback of being incapable of distinguishing between infected and unaffected cells. "Only one in every 500 cells is infected with the virus, but the 'azt' factor, in killing that one cell, kills the 499 unaffected ones as well," Majeed argues, adding, "Further, the 'experimental period' of this drug is three years. Right now, worldwide, 20 patients are on this medication and three have already withdrawn after six months because of the high toxicity."

A visibly agitated Majeed apparently believes the media has further fuelled the war, by taking sides with the multinational against his own preparation. "For years, I have been trying in vain to get recognition for the medicine I developed. But in vain. However, this foreign drug, of unproven efficiency, is being applauded by our media."

"Then there are people like Dr I S Gilada, who has started a clinic for AIDS patients in Bombay and who is actively promoting 'Cocktail'. It is a private business, but is being run under the highly misleading name of India Health Organisation -- something the Bombay high court had objected to. In fact, a suit has been filed against him in the Bombay high court, charging that he is getting money from abroad in the name of AIDS treatment. And these are the people who are against me and my medicine," claims Majeed

Never mind the credentials of his accusers, the question remains, are the charges made against Majeed true? Put the question, and Majeed falls back on fact, and figures. "In the last financial year, I made 6,947 invoices, meaning that many people have purchased my medicine. In this time, six people have died -- that is a death percentage of 0.00086. And that, in context of a disease like AIDS for which modern science offers nothing but death, is not a bad rate at all -- so what more do they want?" he demands.

And the charge that he has been mixing steroids in his medicine? "In her article in The Times of India on November 4, Rupa Chinai wrote that my medicine contained 0.45 to 3.45 mono-grammes per gram of testosterone and 40 to 50 mono-grammes of corrosion per gram. Now, one mono-gramme is one millionth of a milligramme, which is far below the acceptable minimum. Modern science in fact recommends 5 mg to 10 mg of steroids daily for asthma patients, 100 mg to 200 mg for chronic illnesses. So what are they talking about?

"Funnily enough, the same article quoted a professor, Dr Prasanna Kumar, as saying that the steroids in the quantities found in my medicine were neither helpful nor harmful. I think leading newspapers should refrain from making such baseless allegations," says Majeed.

Pointing out that thousands have been lining up for his medicine "without any press publicity, just word of mouth from people who have taken my medicine and found it good", Majeed goes on to rebut charges of money-grabbing. "In the last one year, I have paid Rs 7.5 million as income tax, Rs 27.93 million as sales tax and central sales tax, and Rs 1.91 million as excise duty. All this can be verified.

"Look," says Majeed, visibly irritated by persistent questioning, "all these people who doubt me, doubt the efficacy of my medicine -- do they dare come to my office, and inspect the proof? To talk to the doctors who are recommending my medicine to their patients? There is a doctor in the UK who has been giving his patients my medicine for three years now, will they talk to him? Can they point to any other form of cure that has as much proof as I do for my medicine?"

One woman's story

Tell us what you think of this feature