Dealing with ‘Majid phenomenon’.

[Guest guest]

Dear AIDS- INDIA eFOURM subscribers,

The continuing saga of Majid- quackery is a sad reflection of the

inability of Indian medical regulatory authorities. Can some of the

public interest litigation veterans do something about this?

People like Majid are doing enormous damage to AIDS work in India

through his quackery. Because of his advertising, lots of people

get confused between AIDS treatment and treatment for AIDS related

infections. Journalists particularly, give prominence to stories

about him and regularly do features on him on TV. Recently, even

his Rs. 5 crore house got enormous coverage on the local press. But,

not a word about the quackery aspect.

The result of all this is that more gullible people flock to him for

treatment. Now, apart from AIDS, he has cures for cancer, cholesterol

and now for Alzheimer's disease. Features on these cures appear

regularly on TV and huge hoardings on his cholesterol cure, which he

claims will avoid coronary bypass surgery, are seen in all highways.

The legal advice was, that someone who has bought his drugs and found

them useless could successfully sue him. There is already a case

filed by the Maharashtra network of positive people. But that is not

enough.

If Indian medical regulatory authorities are incapable of dealing

with this phenominal quackery, more people especially people who are

living with HIV/AIDS may have to come forward to deal with this

phenomenon. Any suggestions from the subcribers of this forum are

welcome.

Moderator

AIDS- INDIA eFOURM

Indiaaids@...

[Guest guest]

Hello,

Greetings from CHES.

CHES is interested in putting up a case against Majid

if the forum members can join together. We have been

raising this issue at several places over several

years. Once when I gave an interview talking about

this man, the next week there was a interview by him

to talk against.

Not only Majid there are many others.

They are doing a lot of damage to the AIDS field.

Majid first does the HIV antibody test and after

100days when you normally expect the window period to

be over he does the antigen test and says they are

negative and the virus is not there but antibody will

be there because of the reaction of the virus. He

fools people.

I am surprised how the government has

not taken any action. His clinics are throught

Tamilnadu especially remote areas like Kolli hills,

Nammmakkkal, Dharmapuri etc; His drug immunocure has

high level of steroids.

The man Raju and Mallika who used to talk about him

in papers- Raju is no more and died of AIDS and

jaundice. Lastly he had told this

lady that he did not follow his treatment properly.

Many who tried his medicines have failed and have to

me for further management.

People go to him with great expectation of magical

cure but when it fails they are depressed and feel

that they are going to die. Bring in a positive attitude

among them is very difficult.

And they die of depression. It is phenomenal the

disaster he does. He will advertise in magazine and

these people pay no heed to it.

I have spoken about

this in press meet, media workshop and also in NGO

meet with state health ministers. The state minister

said due action will be taken. But nothing was done in

a big way to stop him from cheating people.

Majid is draining the IEC cost effectiveness. We had a

campaign for auto drivers. During such a programme where

we met more that 10,000 drivers over a period of two

months, one constant comment by them was " why due you

make such a big fuss about no cure for AIDS, there is

a man called Majid who cures AIDs " . What is going to happen

to our condom promotion. NGO's are doing a Himalayan

task of bringing a behaviour change but such an

advertisement is going to make all this money spent by

NGO's and government go waste.

I hope forum members, NGO's, CBO's and PLWH networks

and the various state AIDS cells will all join

together to fight against quackery first before

fighting AIDS.

Dr. Manorama.

E-mail: <pmanorama@...>