Kyrgyz Cancer Sufferers Turn to Healers

Like hundreds of women suffering from cancer, Sanovar, 52, has fallen victim to a misplaced faith in traditional healers.



She was diagnosed with breast cancer a year ago, and underwent a course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy at the National Oncological Centre in Bishkek.



Sanovar, a teacher with a university education, apparently became homesick, broke off her treatment and returned home, where neighbours advised her to see a healer.



The latter “treated” her for three months, after which he declared that she’d been completely cured. But when she went back to Bishkek for a check-up, doctors found that her cancer had worsened.



“I hardly recognised Sanovar - the disease had already taken its [course],” said the head of the oncological centre, Professor Rysbek Abdyldaev. “I immediately asked her where she had been all this time. I had thought she would spend a month in her village at most and then return to us.”



Though extremely ill, Sanovar still seems to hold by her healer’s diagnosis, “I don't believe I have cancer. I am a person who believes in Allah, and a good wish is half a good deed - how can I not believe good words that I have no cancer."



Sanovar comes from the Karasuu district of Osh, around 700 kilometres from Bishkek. Cancer sufferers here and the south’s other two regions - Batken and Jalalabad - have to go to the capital for treatment, as there are no local oncological centres.



Abdyldaev said Sanovar’s story was quite commonplace, “People from southern regions come to Bishkek and are treated here. Then after being with us for several months, they begin to miss their families and children and hurry to get discharged.



"After returning to home, they start looking for folk healers, who people say have miraculous powers.”



According to oncologist Sergei Buyuklyanov, there’s been an increase in the number of women suffering from cancer of the breast and the uterus in recent years, but that if tumours are treated at an early stage the recovery rate is high.



Local doctors try to discourage cancer sufferers from resorting to alternative medicine. Jusupbek Samidinov, a cancer treatment specialist at the Jalalabad regional hospital, said, “We explain everything to patients and send them to Bishkek with great difficulty. They agree, but don’t go there, or they get treatment for a short amount of time and then come back.”



Health experts suggest that many Kyrgyz women, not just those from the south, are being deceived by practitioners of alternative medicine. Doctor of medical science Damir Abdyldaev said, “Kyrgyz women, unfortunately, sometimes believe these charlatans more than they believe us. They don’t understand that this naivety threatens their lives.”



Abdyldaev said he has not encountered a single case of the cancer sufferer being healed by traditional medicine, “but the number of people who go to folk doctors does not decrease. Frequently, even medical employees who have cancer go to them. We, Kyrgyz, are probably the most trusting people in the world, because we believe everyone who promises to cure us.”



The professor said that women who’ve been treated by folk doctors often come to oncologists in the last stages of their illness, when nothing can be done to save them.



Folk doctor Chinara, who lives in the new housing estate of Kokjar near Bishkek, receives about 50-60 people a day - around 80 per cent of them women.



Chinara claims she can determine what someone is suffering from by checking their pulse, and that an angel sitting on her left shoulder whispers the treatment. She says she employs mystical chanting to treat cancer.



“Cancer is a disease of the person’s soul. Various types of stress and worry accumulate and in the end they lead to a disease of the soul. I drive out this disease with my incantations,” said Chinara.



Outside a building in central Bishkek, people queue up to be seen by Sasha who claims to be a qualified doctor and to have cured over 20 women of cancer. “I treat them with what we use in everyday life,” he said. “I treat cancer with garlic, aloe and Issykkul root. But a special recipe is needed for this, and I won’t tell it to anyone.”



There’s a widespread belief amongst Kyrgyz that the Issykkul root can kill off tumours, but there have been cases of people dying as a result of taking alternative medicine made with it.



Abdyldaev said he’s often approached by cancer sufferers who want to know whether certain folk remedies work, “Many people ask me if they can be cured by taking [traditional therapies made from] the Issykkul root and by eating a red-bellied frog. I tell them that they can eat the red-bellied frog - both the French and Koreans eat it - and there is no harm or benefit from it. But I explain to them that the Issykkul root is a very harmful plant.”



To date, there have been no prosecutions of healers for treatment scams, but some of their victims are now calling for the judicial authorities to act.



A female cancer suffer from the Issykkul region said an expensive healer treated her for two months to no avail. In the end, she went to see a conventional doctor and now believes the healer duped her.



“He fooled me, saying that I did not have cancer, and sucked all the money out of me. These people should be put in jail,” she said.



Abdyldaev says part of the problem is that cancer sufferers seem reluctant to make complaints against folk doctors, “If the prosecutor’s office launched a case against one of them, there would be a proper investigation. But sick people and their relatives do not even provide statements.”



Some suggest that people would be more inclined to get help from cancer specialists if the treatment they offered was cheaper. The state only contributes four per cent of the cost of the latter – which means it is simply too expensive for most ordinary Kyrgyz.



“First patients have to sell their cow to afford treatment,” said Abdyldaev. “This is only enough for one month, and then they have to sell a second cow. Kyrgyzstan is a poor country. For a full course of treatment for cancer, a whole herd of cows has to be sold.”



Cholpon Orozobekova is a correspondent with Radio Azattyk, the Kyrgyz service of RFE/RL.