Rising nos of patients go to Kashmir for leech therapy

By Sheikh Mushtaq

SRINAGAR (Reuters Life!) - Leeches, widely used by doctors to promote bloodletting in the past, are making a comeback in Kashmir to heal pain and other ailments, attracting patients from all over the country.

Doctors say at least three hospitals in the Himalayan region of Kashmir have started using leeches on patients suffering from skin diseases, arthritis, chronic headaches and sinusitis.

Rising numbers of patients, who have not been cured using conventional medicine, have started to visit the region's three "Unani" or traditional medicine hospitals for "leech therapy".

"We have started using leeches this year and the results are encouraging," said Naseer Ahmad Hakeem, a doctor who heads the three Unani hospitals. "More and more patients are visiting us."

He says leech saliva contains hirudin, an anticoagulant, as well as analgesic and anaesthetic compounds.

"Leeches are wonder-doctors. The saliva of leeches contains many bio-active substances which go into the body of a patient while leeches suck blood," Hakeem said.

Some doctors from the medical mainstream criticise "leech therapy" saying little research has been done on the subject.

"We do not expect the use of leeches in allopathic hospitals in the near future. A lot of research has to be done before that," says Mushtaq Ahmad, a doctor and a teacher in Kashmir's government medical college.