Parody country Pakistan when it is not busy sending spying pigeons to India, it is busy using ‘junglee kabootar’ (wild pigeons) to ‘cure’ hepatitis B. In an undated video that has gone viral on social media, a man in Pathani kurta and pyjama, an outfit which is quite common in Pakistan, is lying down as another man, perhaps a quack demonstrates how a pigeon could ‘suck’ out hepatitis the man is suffering from by pressing the pigeon’s anus on the navel of the man.
MashAllah, Doctor in Pakistan just made brilliant discovery of sucking out germs of Hepatitis C by using pigeon.
Apart from Imran khan this Karachi doctor too deserve Nobel Prize.
Shame on @TarekFatah for saying we only produce rectum see we too produce scientist. pic.twitter.com/SQSyLiTioe
— Sir Zaidu Leaks (@TheZaiduLeaks) March 14, 2019
While the text of the above tweet is sarcastic, referring to the quack as a doctor and mocking the practice, the fact that Pakistanis, and some Islamic and Middle Eastern countries, indeed believe in such cures instead of medicine is not something that should be completely ruled out.
Egyptians who are too poor to afford medical treatment often resort to such scams and bogus rituals. In fact, numerous religious Jews believe that pressing a pigeon’s anus on the navel of the jaundiced patient and then killing 7 such pigeons will cure the patient. That Pakistan would follow a ritual which is quite common in the Middle East is not something that is surprising or shocking.
A Pakistani quack has claimed that he can cure hepatitis C in 1 hour.
He says that people used to make fun of him when he started claiming that he could cure hepatitis C in under an hour. But the best way to cure hepatitis C is ‘junglee kabootar’ (wild pigeon). He explains that the patient should be laid down and on his navel, the pigeon’s anus should be pressed and sit. In 5-10 minutes, the pigeon would die. As soon as one dies, the pigeon should be replaced. When the pigeons stop dying, the patient is cured.
YouTube has quite a few videos demonstrating the pigeon cure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD2L6Rg4T-8
That Pakistan is averse to modern medicine is not something that is a new thing. Recently, Twitter was abuzz with news that Pakistani actor Fawad Khan, who has a huge fan following in India too, had sent back the people who had come to administer vaccination for his daughter. A complaint was reportedly even registered against him. However, he had refuted claims about police complaint and given out details of his daughter’s vaccination schedule to put an end to the rumours.
In fact, according to Babar Atta, former UN-Polio staffer from Pakistan, who is the focal person to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s polio eradication campaign, is quite active on Twitter trying to show how malpractices are rampant in vaccination drives.
25 long years, Millions & Millions pumped into Pakistan’s largest Public Health Initiative & this is where we stand today ??. And when somone tries to correct these malpractices, a coup d’etat is not only planned but also executed against the person. pic.twitter.com/wmojmSK6w5
— Babar Atta (@babarbinatta) March 14, 2019
In fact, his tweets have now got him into trouble as Pakistani ministry is not happy with him outing anti-vaxxers in the country. Federal Minister of National Health Services Aamir Mehmood Kiani has accused Atta of ‘extraordinarily highlighting the polio issue’. “Mr Atta is fond of tweeting and considers himself a Donald Trump, who tweets all the time,” the minister reportedly said. “Mr Atta had tweeted that some persons had unleashed dogs on a polio team and a number of other similar tweets can also be seen.”
Now, if only the not-so-friendly neighbour would focus more on important things like better healthcare and not trying to cure jaundice or hepatitis with a wild pigeon’s anus and vaccinating their children instead of breeding terrorists, it will not only benefit the country but also let us live peacefully.
