[ti:In Rural India, Medical Myths Spread] [ar:Steve Ember] [al:Health Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English Health Report. [00:04.59]Rural areas of India may have few doctors [00:08.91]or other health resources. [00:11.06]Instead, many people use traditional healers. [00:15.54]These faith-based healers, or witch doctors, [00:20.38]sometimes have strange theories [00:23.02]about how the body works. [00:25.16]In West Bengal, for example, [00:28.21]some people have long believed that getting bitten [00:32.15]by a dog leads to the birth of puppies. [00:36.18]Dr. Kumar Kanti Ghosh is a psychiatrist. [00:40.11]He helped document this belief in so-called [00:44.10]puppy pregnancy syndrome for an article. [00:47.73]It appeared in the Lancet medical journal [00:51.16]in two thousand three. [00:52.61]His interest started when a nine-year-old boy [00:57.34]came to his health clinic about ten days [01:00.17]after being bitten by a dog. [01:02.76]KUMAR KANTI GHOSH: "He believes [01:03.91]that he had developed a pregnancy [01:06.74]with a puppy inside his abdomen. [01:10.38]And sometimes also his parents have said that [01:14.90]sometimes the boy is barking like a dog." [01:18.65]A healer named Budheswar Singh says [01:22.64]his mixture of yogurt and herbs has cured many people. [01:27.86]"If the man is brought to me on time, [01:30.80]I can give him my medicine and he will be all right." [01:34.93]Sanjay Samui is a medical doctor who wishes people [01:40.45]would stop believing ideas like this. [01:43.29]"They are uneducated village people [01:46.97]-- they still hold on to such superstitions," he says. [01:50.91]He tells everyone that in no situation [01:55.34]can a puppy be born inside a human body. [01:59.82]The national government spends about one and a half percent [02:04.60]of India's gross domestic product on health care. [02:08.58]This is among the lowest rates in the world. [02:12.51]It means faith healers are the only choice in some places. [02:18.19]The healers spread medical myths [02:22.28]and even build distrust against doctors. [02:25.61]But in some countries, [02:27.81]doctors may seek help from traditional healers. [02:32.11]Officials in Russia have counted at least [02:35.63]eight hundred thousand alternative healers [02:39.13]-- more than the number of medical doctors. [02:42.26](Russian) [02:47.44]Daria Minerova, a healer in Moscow, [02:50.67]told a reporter last year that doctors [02:54.31]often called on her to either cast spells [02:58.40]or clear spells for patients. [03:01.63]She said they ask her for help [03:04.87]when they have a difficult case in trying to cure a patient. [03:10.19]Health care in Russia is basically free. [03:13.93] So cost does not explain [03:16.46]why people seek alternative healers. [03:20.30]Marina Belorysova, [03:22.91]a college-educated English teacher in Moscow, [03:26.94]told a reporter last year [03:28.98]that people avoid western medical care [03:32.91]in Russia for a different reason. [03:35.30]MARINA BELORYSOVA: "Medicine is very poor in Russia. [03:37.94]It is very bad. [03:38.98]At least they know when they use alternative medicine, [03:42.87]nothing really bad will happen, right?" [03:46.05]And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. [03:50.48]You can find a video about medical myths in rural India [03:56.21]at 51voa.com. [03:59.50]I'm Steve Ember.