Asthma patients queue up to take fish medicine?

HYDERABAD - Hundreds of asthma patients from different parts of India queued up here Tuesday to gulp down a live ‘murrel’ fish with a yellow herbal paste in its mouth in the hope it can cure them.

The distribution of the famous ‘fish medicine’ began this evening at the sprawling Exhibition Grounds in the heart of the city.

The members of Bathini Goud family, which has administered the medicine free of cost for over 160 years, started distributing the medicine after a traditional ‘puja’ at 5 p.m., the time set by their astrologers, which also heralds the onset of monsoon.

Men, women and children stood in long queues hours before the Goud family members and volunteers started administering the ‘wonder drug’.

The Hyderabad district administration made elaborate arrangements for the annual event. Over 300 policemen were deployed as part of the security measures.

The fisheries department has made arrangements for the sale of ‘murrel’ fingerlings. Those who don’t take fish are being provided medicine with jaggery.

Like in the past, people from different regions gathered in the hope of finding some relief to their nagging respiratory problems, despite the controversies surrounding its efficacy.

The fish medicine lost its popularity in recent years after some groups, working to inculcate scientific temper among people, termed it a fraud.

They also approached the court, claiming that the contents of the herbal paste, which remained a closely guarded family secret, do more harm than good to the patients.

The turnout has clearly dwindled over the last five years. The Goud family claims that over 400,000 asthma patients turn up every year but the turnout has hardly exceeds 100,000, going by the arrangements made by fisheries department for sale of fingerlings.

The Goud family, which named the medicine ‘fish prasadam’ recently to avoid legal problems, claims that it was still popular despite the ‘false propaganda’ by some groups.

According to the family, the tests in laboratories conducted as per court orders revealed that the herbal paste is safe.

The herbal paste 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 Goud family has distributed the ‘fish prasadam’ free of cost for 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.