Donkey’s milk to herbs — quacks have a field day in HIV epicentre

After the treatment, he sends his patients back to the lab, which declares they have been cured. In many cases, the patients are sent back for another round of treatment for the same amount.

Thankfully, he doesn’t recommend donkey’s milk, which is popular with other ‘doctors’ like him in the region. He says it is just a myth that donkey’s milk — one ounce costs Rs 10 — cures HIV. His medicines are a sure bet, he assures.

Quacks are as common as STD booths in this district, where every second person is a truck driver, cleaner or helper, constituting one of the highest HIV risk groups. Namakkal district, which was earmarked as an ‘epicentre’ of virus prevalence in the country a few years ago, has a high number of HIV-related deaths. While official figures put the number of HIV+ cases in the district at one lakh, NGOs say the figure could be more than double.

‘‘Villagers have spent lakhs of rupees on quacks, selling their small land holdings and borrowing heavily,’’ says P Williams, finance officer of the HIV Ullor Nala Sangam (HUNS), working hard to rid the myth that HIV can be ‘cured’. Sivagami of Alangattuputhur spent Rs 45,000 on a quack in Moganoor village.

‘‘The old man who ran the clinic gave me a gooey brown stuff, which we believe was mostly palm sugar. I was asked to have it with black tea twice a day,’’ says Sivagami, who now works for HUNS, creating awareness about quacks in her village. She adds the 1,200 members of the organisation had been duped by quacks.

But for politicians in the six constituencies of the district, famous for its poultry and transport industries, the focus is water supply, infrastructure and cold storage facilities for poultry farmers. The worrying AIDS scenario, or the thriving business of quackery, has never figured in their scheme of things.

Buthis time, perhaps realising that HIV patients and their families constituted a sizeable chunk of the 12.5 lakh voters in the district, S Gandhiselvan, a candidate from Tiruchengode, quietly reached out to intervention workers of NGOs in his constituency, promising them financial assistance if he became a MLA.

At a meeting of workers in Kabilar Malai, PMK candidate Dr Nedunchezhian promised help in routing government funds to the district for tackling AIDS.

But both chose to overlook the quacks, many of whom are believed to have political patronage. No case has been registered against a single quack so far.

One of the biggest in the business is Rajah Clinic run by the kin of one N A Rangasamy, who shot himself three years ago apparently fearing an I-T raid at his palatial house-cum-clinic in Thokawad in Tiruchengode. Finance Minister and MLA C Ponnaiyan, denied a ticket this time, is said to have inaugurated the clinic, which claims ‘‘to cure HIV/AIDS’’.

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