FIAR Director's Report - 2004
A brief review of patient records was also undertaken. This supplemented a more complete review of all records last December. In that review and the current more cursory one, it appeared that many patients were seeing clinical improvements in terms of increased weight, resolution of fever, improved energy and diminution of infections. However, many had only data regarding the treatments being provided with little additional clinical information. Only a few, due to the costs, had blood work of any kind. All had at least had HIV testing that indicated their positive status, though these were probably not confirmed with Western blot follow-up (which costs about $20 per test and is, for most, an onerous expense of 900+ rupees).
Finally, we had the opportunity to visit different individuals who had been treated with the Siddha protocol. First was a patient who came to the Namakkal center for further treatment. He appeared to have suffered some weight loss and had large, papular lesions on his face, arms and legs. It appeared to Mr. Carter to be Kaposi's sarcoma; however he is not a clinician. Dr. Bubhaneshwar felt it was a form of eczema due to the well-defined borders on the lesions. On the legs, there appeared to be some weeping of lesions but this is not inconsistent with KS in more advanced, fulminant stages. It was noted that these lesions had been more serious at the prior visit; however a photo of that earlier visit was not located.
Second, we drove to the village where a young woman (about 43) who had been a sex worker and flower seller lived with her family (daughter, son and mother). She felt that the Siddha medicine had considerably improved her condition. Her strength and energy had returned. She appeared to be in good condition and good spirits.
Another patient we met last December also had seen significant improvement. She is part of Gandeepam's IRB.
Please contact us (fiar@verizon.net) for information on further developments. At this time, Mt. Sinai is planning to send 2-3 medical students to undertake an internship at Gandeepam this summer and provide additional technical assistance. We plan a site visit for this September/October to further the research objectives.
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