The Star reports

Desperate for a cure for cancer, a mother sought traditional help but her condition ended up far worse and she was RM4,000 poorer after being duped by a bogus medicine man.
Ng Peck, 36, from Kampung Lapan was diagnosed with stage-four liver cancer in April last year. She was forced to stop her chemotherapy treatment in September 2009 as her blood platelet count was low.
Looking for a cure to remove the tumours from her liver, she was convinced she could be healed by an Indonesian man who ran an alternative medicine centre in Shah Alam.
She travelled to the centre on May 5 with her husband for treatment.
“I had some kind of surgery where the ‘doctor’ used a masking tape to mark out an area of my stomach. Later, he kept pressing my abdomen.
“I was shocked when blood squirted out from my stomach later, with the ‘doctor’ claiming he had removed my tumors,” said Ng at a press conference here yesterday.
The “doctor” later showed her two dark-looking substances covered in blood, which he claimed were the tumors removed from her body.
However, several days later, Ng, a former sales executive, realised something was wrong when she continued to feel pain in her stomach.
“I decided to go for a CT scan at a private hospital here on May 13, and was shocked when doctors informed me that my tumors were still present and had spread further,” she said.

We wonder if it is the same Dr. Who we mentioned earlier and so does MsForty5 in the MMR Forums. The report concluded that the “MCA here would help Ng to lodge a police report and also bring the matter up with the Health Ministry to probe the scam”
We have highlighted such Quack surgery in this blog and also contacted the Health Ministry. The fact that this goes on and on and on makes we wonder what action will be taken in this specific case.
Like illegal VCD peddlers, they will continue to pop up everywhere. The only thing is for the public to learn not to be so gullible, which is also wishful thinking.

Finally it’s out in the Star and the reporter got it right by calling it a Bleeding Scam. Whether or not carried out by homeopaths, naturopaths, sinsehs or real doctors, Live Blood Analysis is indeed junk science.
Rather curious that “Up to press time, Health Ministry’s director-general Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican had yet to respond to requests for comment on this practice.”
I am sure the MOH is aware of this practice. Rather than let thousands and thousands of gullible Malaysians continue to be duped by this scam, shouldn’t the authorities do something?

Related posts:
Medical misinformation in Malaysiakini: the Live Blood Analysis hocus pocus
Nutritional Live Blood Analysis

Update 6/10/9 : The DG has made a statement in the press: No evidence to back LBA’s effectiveness, says Health D-G

Ms Forty5 relates this story in the MMR Forums

Dr Who operates in a shophouse somewhere in ShahAlam. His klinik is busy with patients, new & follow-ups. Nurses swears by miracle treatment, don’t believe just ask the ones waiting to see him. History of Patient-diagnosed with uterus cancer as per CT scan but decided to save her uterus with minimal side effects as claimed by Dr Who.
Witness view whole procedure behind glass panel. Patient lie down on op.table conscious. A white piece of cloth is placed on her forehead. Witness saw surgical knives etc & Dr Who + assistant garbed in surgical gowns. Dr cuts up, blood everywhere, but Patient don’t feel pain while witness grimace in pain. Short while, dr who took out something bloody & shows to witness in crime the so called mother of all tumor. Patient only need 1hr to recuperate before being discharged same day, with no antibiotics, painkiller!
6 months down the road, another CT scan shows tumor is intact Patient goes back to Dr Who but was told the mother tumor was removed, the one seen are new cells. Patient decided to listen to other know all & tried Bruce Diet supposedly to rid cancer cells.
To cut story short, patient is now diagnosed with advanced cancer.

This is outright fraud and the unfortunate victim will suffer the fate of death by quackery. Doctors were lead to believe that the PHFSA’s main aim was to weed out bad hats in the medical profession and indeed unqualified persons who claim to be “doctors” and claim to be performing “miracle surgery” but are in actual fact duping gullible innocents.
Back in July, we highlighted an example of such quack surgery and several doctors had taken the initiative to inform the MOH directly, and effort was also taken to inform the MOH via the MMA.
Until now, we have not had any reply nor have we heard of any action taken against this “miracle surgeon”.
When things like this continue to happen in this nation, when the authorities fail to take action despite being notified, then I believe the system is really broken and in dire straits.

One would think that the priority of the Private Healthcare Services and Facilities Act is to protect the public against quacks and unlicensed persons professing to be doctors and performing things like fraudulent “miracle surgery”.
After highlighting such a “Miracle surgery” scam when it was brought to our attention, the MOH was informed by several doctors.

It may be that to some, it’s more a concern that doctors’ and dentists’ clinic ceilings and doors must conform to the required dimensions. Don’t laugh for this is still going on as illustrated by an example quoted in the doctors’ forums:

A dentist is opening up a clinic few doors away. When he submitted his application, he was told a door of 0.9M was acceptable.
He proceeded with the renovation. But when the inspection team came, the doctor I/C of the team refused approval and told that the door should follow the size as in regulation.
He was supposed to open on 01/07/2009 but now delayed due to post inspection renovation.

I should think it is more serious that there is someone who can claim to miraculously cut up “intestines” with barbers blades and scissors without anaesthetic and without leaving any scars. Are clinic doors and ceilings more important than innocent people being duped?
After more than two weeks, we are still waiting for a reply from the MOH.

The BBC has a interesting Audio Slideshow featuring quacks through the ages and how they ply their trade with road side shows selling their elixirs, potions and their “miraculous medical devices”.
While this is history in Britain, it still is happening here in Malaysia.

This video clip (link taken from the LYN site, video originally uploaded by this person) is reminiscent of “road side show medicine” like that featured in the BBC article.

Amazing diagnostic technique – miracle spray on the face and one can tell the patient has a problem with her uterus/right ovary (if I heard it right)!.
Well, further to the Another “Miracle surgery” scam in Malaysia? post, I haven’t had a reply from MOH, yet.

CyberSetan pointed out in this thread in the LowYat.net forums yet another possible medical scam in this country. The post details the alleged “doctor” and the nature of his practice which claims to use surgery in conjunction with “spiritual healing”. Links to his website as well as videos of the “surgery” can be seen in that post.

A search for the alleged “doctor” in the MMC medical registry fails to find the name listed there. He however runs his miracle surgery “practice” in a “Pusat Rawatan” in Johor and KL.
The “surgery” in those videos seems to be performed without general anaesthetic, with razors and scissors and the “organs” don’t seem to be bleeding much suggesting these are probably animal parts placed on top of the “patient”. The “patients” also end up with no scars!

Such “miracle surgery” scams are not unique to Malaysia and have been going on in other countries including notoriously the Philippines. The Filipino “psychic surgeons” are even more miraculous as they don’t use surgical instruments, only their bare hands! Their techniques are exposed in this video by James Randi:

Someone in the LowYat thread had suggested a complaint to the MMC but unfortunately this is not the authority which deals with charlatans and bogus doctors. The MMC governs the ethical behaviour of registered/licensed doctors and not charlatans and quacks. The latter fall under the jurisdiction of the MOH. In case the MOH does not read this post, I have sent kkm@moh.gov.my an email and I hope they will investigate further. This is what the PHFSA was set up for – to protect the public from charlatans and quacks.

I thought they got it right when Malaysiakini ran an article Blood tests a big scam? but unfortunately quite a fair bit of it was about an “explanation” from an alleged Klang Valley doctor who touted Live Blood Analysis (LBA)’s “usefulness”. Unfortunate for this explanation amounts to pseudo-scientific hocus pocus.

The Malaysikini article contained the alleged doctor’s claims:

“Through LBA the activities of blood cells such as killing bacteria and fungus can be observed clearly,” said Lim, who has been conducting LBA in his center for 10 years.
He added: “To perform LBA, a single drop of blood is collected from a finger-tip for examination when the blood cells and microorganisms are still alive.
“Through LBA doctors are able to assess a patient’s immune, nutritional, circulation and toxicity (liver stress) status after the blood cells have been observed under a microscope.
“It thus gives us early signs of deterioration of our health conditions and provides vital information to formulate a nutritional or metabolic programme.”

The warning flag should be the “nutritional or metabolic programme” that someone is trying to sell you.

Unfortunately the notion that LBA can reliably detect one’s “immune, nutritional, and toxicity” status is extremely contentious to put it mildly. There are far better and more sensitive tests to detect liver function, infections and assays for specific deficiencies where these are indicated.
“Free radical test” as a follow-up to LBA? Please-lah, this is another scam test you see advertised in “natural health” websites and carried out by nutrition quacks.

I just want to quote Wikipedia which summarises it nicely, and at least this time gets it right:

Proponents believe that live blood analysis provides information “about the state of the immune system, possible vitamin deficiencies, amount of toxicity, pH and mineral imbalance, areas of concern and weaknesses, fungus and yeast.” Some even claim it can “spot cancer and other degenerative immune system diseases up to two years before they would otherwise be detectable” or say they can diagnose “lack of oxygen in the blood, low trace minerals, lack of exercise, too much alcohol or yeast, weak kidneys, bladder or spleen.” Practitioners include alternative medicine providers such as nutritionists, herbologists, naturopaths, and chiropractors.

Dark field microscopy is useful to enhance contrast in unstained samples, but live blood analysis is not proven to be useful for any of its claimed indications. Two journal articles published in the alternative medical literature found that darkfield microscopy seemed unable to detect cancer, and that live blood analysis lacked reliability, reproducibility, and sensitivity and specificity.

Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter and University of Plymouth, notes: “No credible scientific studies have demonstrated the reliability of LBA for detecting any of the above conditions.” Ernst describes live blood analysis as a “fraudulent” means of convincing patients to buy dietary supplements.

Let me repeat the last line in case you didn’t get it in your heads:

Ernst describes live blood analysis as a “fraudulent” means of convincing patients to buy dietary supplements.

LBA if done by a medical doctor is not necessarily better than if done by “nutritionists, herbologists, naturopaths, and chiropractors”. The issue is not who is doing it but the scientific basis (or lack of) behind LBA and the dubious claims practitioners make about it.
I am also surprised that according to Malaysiakini, “The Health Ministry and the Malaysian Medical Association declined to comment on this issue”. Nothing to say on this? What if the alleged doctor is indeed a registered medical practitioner on the MMC register? Isn’t it worse?
Any claim that a particular “test” has a clinical application should be properly evaluated. There should be publications which independently validate the tests and if one tries to search for Live Blood Analysis in the medical literature via Pubmed or Google Scholar, the precious few there are aren’t positive (see References below)

More reading:
Guardian: Intrigued by the spectacular claims made for Live Blood Analysis? Don’t be. It doesn’t work
Quackwatch: Live Blood Cell Analysis: Another Gimmick to Sell You Something
Skeptic Zoners: Live Blood Analysis – hocus pocus?

References:
1. Clinical utility of live blood analysis. J Korean Acad Fam Med. 2001 Jan;22(1):70-77.

There was no difference between patients and controls in observing 3 abnormal finding. CONCLUSION: We conclude that Live blood analysis may have no clinical significance.

2. Complementary and alternative allergy tests : review article. Morris, Adrian 2006
This article reviews the common tests employed by complementary and alternative medical practitioners to diagnose allergies and intolerances. These tests include VEGA, applied kinesiology, hair analysis, auriculocardiac test, stool and live blood analysis, leucocytotoxic tests and IgG ELISA tests. None of these tests has proven to be as accurate as specific IgE measurement in allergy diagnosis and they cannot be recommended.

3. eMJA 2004; 180 (12): 647-648: Good medicine and bad medicine: science to promote the convergence of “alternative” and orthodox medicine
- poses a question which those in charge of ethics should ponder (MMC, MMA Ethical committee):

Should Medical Boards (and indeed similar statutory authorities monitoring the quality of care given by nurses and allied health professionals) be more vigilant in challenging the appropriateness of renewing registration of those whose diagnostic and therapeutic approaches would not be acceptable to their peers (for example, the use of “live blood analysis”, inappropriate chelation therapy,infusing massive doses of intravenous vitamin C, colonic irrigation procedures)?

Related MMR posts:
Live Cell Analysis: High-Tech Hokum
Nutritional Live Blood Analysis

Just had a feedback:

My name is Wong Pheak Zern, and I am a reporter from Malaysiakini. Recently I am doing a story regarding the Live Blood Analysis in Malaysia, and whether it has been a scam. Is there anyone in your organization that I can contact to answer my enquiries and get some comments? Quick response will be appreciated. Thank you very much.

Hi Wong,

It’s a coincidence as I was just about to do a post on this. Hope this will help clarify things:

Recently a patient of mine told me that he and his wife underwent Live Cell Analysis. We mentioned it before but I am concerned that this is allegedly been carried out in a clinic. I do not have the details but Live Cell Analysis is basically High-Tech Hokum

Live cell analysis is the latest in a seemingly endless succession of questionable tests used as the basis for prescribing food supplements. This procedure is carried out by placing a drop of blood from the patient’s fingertip on a microscope slide under a glass coverslip to keep it from drying out. The slide is then viewed with a dark-field microscope to which a television monitor has been attached. Both practitioner and patient can then see the blood cells, which appear as dark bodies outlined in white. The practitioner may also take polaroid photographs of the television picture for himself and the patient.

The Quackwatch article also has a nice table telling you why the claims by “Live Cell Analysis” practitioners are ridiculous as the inference from some of the morphological changes seen on dark field microscopy are quite unsound from a scientific point of view. Worth a read.

Here’s another Quackwatch article worth a read: Live Blood Cell Analysis: Another Gimmick to Sell You Something

Related MMR post:
Nutritional Live Blood Analysis

For most people there is no short cut to weight loss – proper diet and exercise. But many still are looking for that miracle weight loss product and hence fall prey to unscrupulous people selling these products tainted with banned substances.

On Dec. 22, 2008, the FDA warned consumers not to purchase or consume 28 different products marketed for weight loss. On Jan. 8, 2009, the FDA expanded the list of tainted weight loss products to include 41 additional tainted products. The FDA will continue to update this list as warranted.
The products listed above, some of which are marketed as dietary supplements, are promoted and sold on various Web sites and in some retail stores and beauty salons. Some of the products claim to be “natural” or to contain only “herbal” ingredients, but actually contain potentially harmful ingredients not listed on the products’ labels or in promotional advertisements.

For the full FDA alert, click here

It seems people are still looking for information on Ozone therapy in Malaysia, judging by incoming links from Google search to this site. Well, we’ve mentioned Ozone therapy before but perhaps I should point out to readers once again that our very own Ministry of Health has evaluated Ozone therapy before and you can read their evaluation report here (PDF format 196 Kb)
This was the MOH conclusion:

8. CONCLUSIONS
Current data on the usage of ozone therapy as therapeutic options for various health conditions lacks sufficient safety and therapeutic advantage over available conventional therapeutic modalities.
9. RECOMMENDATIONS
There is insufficient clinical evidence to recommend ozone therapy as a form of alternative treatment in patients with HIV AND infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, ischaemia, eye conditions, ENT, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedic disorders, cancer and skin conditions.

Despite the MOH evaluation, Ozone therapy continues to thrive in Malaysia. We have seen unfortunate cancer patients subjected to ineffective ozone therapy resulting in their cancers progressing to incurable stages when they could have been cured if properly treated at earlier stages.
You can check out some horror stories in the MMR’s Death by Alternative Medicine series

Further reading:
Quackwatch – Oxygenation Therapy: Unproven Treatments for Cancer and AIDS

Spotted this in Youtube

Another useless sex survey reported in the NST. If you believe it, then Malaysians are in a very sorry state as far as sex is concerned.

Four in 10 men cannot achieve a full erection while three in 10 women in Malaysia professed to wanting better sex. This is revealed in a survey conducted by pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc.
The survey also showed that 62 per cent of men and 73 per cent of women respondents were less than very or completely satisfied with sex.
The survey was conducted in 13 Asia Pacific countries.
A total of 102 men and 100 women in Malaysia responded to the survey online from May to July last year.

So it seems that 4/10 Malaysian men are “tofu” going by their erectile quality scale

“We can say that grade one is only as hard as tofu, followed by peeled banana and unpeeled banana, while grade four is as hard as cucumber,” she said to the laughter of those present.

But wait. Look at the sample size. 102 men and 100 women. That’s a pathetically small sample indeed. Moreover it was an online survey and that would skew the real picture further.
So please spare us this ridiculous data and if you want to do a study, do a proper one.

On a related note, it seems that our neighbours south faced an unusual outbreak of hypoglycaemia attributable to so called “herbal sexual enhancing products” which actually contained glyburide as an “ingredient”. This was reported in the Feb 12 issue of the NEJM

Between January 1 and May 26, 2008, a total of 150 nondiabetic patients with severe hypoglycemia were admitted to the five public hospitals in Singapore. All the patients except one were men, and they ranged in age from 19 to 97 years (median, 51). Seven patients remained comatose as a result of prolonged neuroglycopenia, and four subsequently died.
Glyburide was detected in blood or urine samples obtained from 127 of these patients (85%). On specific questioning, 45 patients (30%) admitted ingesting illegal sexual-enhancement drugs before the onset of hypoglycemia. Drug samples obtained from these patients and from drugs seized in police raids were analyzed by means of high-performance liquid chromatography. Four preparations were contaminated with glyburide in amounts ranging from 13 to 100 mg per tablet (Figure 1A). These drugs included a counterfeit of Cialis (tadalafil) and three herbal preparations for the purported treatment of erectile dysfunction (Power 1 Walnut, Santi Bovine Penis Erecting Capsule, and Zhong Hua Niu Bian).3 All four products also contained sildenafil in amounts ranging from 0.5 to 110.0 mg per tablet. Santi Bovine Penis Erecting Capsule and Zhong Hua Niu Bian also contained trace amounts of tadalafil and sibutramine.

4 people actually died!! I think people should take heed and not consume these products. You have been warned yet again!!