Fake doctors and traditional healing practitioners, locally known as kabiraj, are doing a thriving business in rural Bangladesh.
Many do not have any training or license for practice. Yet they are opening chambers in small localities and treating patients in abundance.
In rural Kushtia there is indiscriminate use of antibiotics among patients, thanks to doctors without degrees.
Jasim Uddin, a resident of Mirpur upazila of Kushtia, got admitted to a diploma in medical faculty course at a local institute. He worked as an intern at Kushtia General Hospital for nine months and at an upazila health complex for three months. Two months ago he opened a pharmacy in his area. The signboard says he is a doctor.
Jasim told Dhaka Tribune that he has since been treating patients with mild ailments at his pharmacy. He said that the more serious patients are sent to nearby hospitals.
However, when asked about his claim to be a doctor, Jasim said that there was nothing illegal in it and the matter was subjudice. He mentioned two more such doctors in the vicinity of his drugstore-cum-chamber.
Another such fake doctor, Md Marfat Ali, admitted to Dhaka Tribune that posing as a doctor was illegal and also that people like him are not allowed to use the title of doctor.
Dhaka TribuneLocal people said that these drugstores are very close to them and the doctors do not even ask patients for diagnostic reports. They are given prescriptions without medical tests, which is very convenient for rural people.
A person named Atiyar told Dhaka Tribune that these rural doctors are better healers than medical degree holders. Moreover, farmers do not have the time to go to hospitals or clinics for diagnostic tests.
Another rural healer, Md Mukul Hossain, claimed that he has the knowledge to treat patients suffering from different ailments, including cancer. He told Dhaka Tribune that he is so popular among his patients that they give him expensive gifts. The airconditioner at his chamber is also a gift from one of his patients.
Several patients at his chamber, however, told the reporter that Mukul is a rural exorcist and most of the patients coming to him have been denied treatment by different hospitals or doctors with real degrees. Mukul is their last resort.
Advocate Siraj Pramanic, a practitioner at the Supreme Court, said that people claiming to be doctors without obtaining degrees are deceiving people. He said such activities are punishable offences and people engaging in them must be brought to book.
A local medical officer, Saffat Hossain Rana, said that rural healers cannot prescribe treatment for patients as they are not recognized by the Bangladesh Medical & Dental Council (BMDC). These people are deceiving patients and many are asked to continue their original medication prescribed by a real doctor. In most cases, these patients get better with time and the rural healers or kabiraj take the credit for patients' recovery.