All set for ‘fish prasadam’ for asthma patients

HYDERABAD - The stage is set for the distribution of the famous ‘fish medicine’ for asthma patients here Tuesday.

The Bathini Goud family will start distribution of the medicine, also known as ‘fish prasadam’, at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the sprawling Exhibition Grounds.

The family members and volunteers will continue administering the medicine till 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Hyderabad district administration and some voluntary organisations have made elaborate arrangements for the annual event, which attracts asthma patients from different parts of the state.

Some patients from abroad also join the long queues in the hope of finding some relief to their nagging respiratory problems.

The Goud family expects more than 400,000 asthma patients this year.

This year, the administration has decided to do away with the issue of tokens with clear time slots for regulating the crowds. All the patients will now have to stand in long queues. Officials said they had decided to do away with the system due to financial constraints.

Various departments, however, will continue to provide electricity supply, drinking water and other amenities for the patients. Police are making tight security arrangements.

The department of fisheries has set up 27 stalls for supply of live ‘murrel’ fingerlings. Each fingerling will cost Rs.10.

A yellow herbal paste, the contents of which have remained a closely guarded family secret for over 150 years, is put into the mouth of the live fingerling before slipping it into the mouth of the patient. It is believed that if taken for three successive years, the medicine cures asthma.

The fish medicine was named fish prasadam four years ago when some organisations approached the high court, challenging the claims of Goud family that the medicine cures asthma.

Organisations like Jana Vignana Vedika (JVV), which is working to create scientific temper among people, termed the fish medicine a fraud and urged the government to stop patronising the event.

As the organisations also claimed that the paste was harmful as it contains heavy metals, the court had ordered laboratory tests of the same.

However, B. Harinath Goud, a member of the Goud family, claimed that the laboratories certified that the fish medicine is safe. “All the cases against the fish prasadam have been dismissed,” he said.

According to him, the medicine was named prasadam to not only avoid legal complications but also to show that only those who believe in its efficacy will take it.

The Goud family has been distributing the ‘fish prasadam’ free of cost for the last 164 years. It claims that the secret formula for the herbal medicine was given to their ancestor in 1845 by a saint after taking an oath from him that it should be administered free of cost.