印尼：没钱看病就去卧轨

在印度尼西亚，很多身患疾病的贫苦民众因为负担不起医药费而放弃医院治疗。不过，新近流行的“卧轨电疗”似乎为他们带来了一线希望。据悉，“卧轨电疗”其实就是横躺在两条铁轨上，等待列车接近时发出的电流穿过身体，以此达到治病的目的，然后在列车靠近前迅速离开铁轨。医学专家表示，目前并没有证据证明这种做法对疾病有任何治疗作用。印尼铁路方面为了阻止人们进行这样危险的活动，已经在铁路沿线发布警告标志，并表示违者将受到三个月监禁或者罚款1800美元的处罚。偏方疗法在亚洲许多地区都很流行。有关触摸神石或吃了圣牛的粪便就能使疾病奇迹般痊愈的传言，总能吸引很多人的注意。

印尼：没钱看病就去卧轨

Villagers lie on a railway track for an electricity therapy in Rawa Buaya, Jakarta, Indonesia。

Ignoring the red-and-white danger sign, Sri Mulyati walks slowly to the train tracks outside Indonesia's bustling capital, lies down and stretches her body across the rails。

Like the nearly dozen others lined up along the track, the 50-year-old diabetes patient has all but given up on doctors and can't afford the expensive medicines they prescribe。

In her mind, she has only one option left: electric therapy。

"I'll keep doing this until I'm completely cured," said Mulyati, twitching visibly as an oncoming passenger train sends an extra rush of current racing through her body。

She leaps from tracks as it approaches and then, after the last carriage rattles slowly by, climbs back into position。

Pseudo-medical treatments are wildly popular in many parts of Asia — where rumors about those miraculously cured after touching a magic stone or eating dung from sacred cows can attract hundreds, sometimes thousands。

That may be especially true in Indonesia, where chronic funding shortages and chaotic decentralization efforts since the 1998 ouster of Suharto have left many disillusioned with the state-sponsored health system, said Marius Widjajarta, chairman of the Indonesian Health Consumers Empowerment Foundation。

Medical experts say there is no evidence lying on the rails does any good。

But Mulyati insists it provides more relief for her symptoms — high-blood pressure, sleeplessness and high cholesterol — than any doctor has since she was first diagnosed with diabetes 13 years ago。

She turned to train track therapy last year after hearing a rumor about an ethnic Chinese man who was partially paralyzed by a stroke going to the tracks to kill himself, but instead finding himself cured。

It's a story that's been told and retold in Indonesia。

Until recently, more than 50 people would show up at the Rawa Buaya tracks every day. But the numbers have dropped since police and the state-run railroad company erected a warning sign and threatened penalties of up to three months in prison or fines of $1,800.

No one has been arrested yet, and none of the participants in train track therapy has died。

But the dedicated dozen a day who still come say they have no plans to stop。

"They told us not to do it anymore, but what else can I do," said Hadi Winoto, a 50-year-old stroke victim who has trouble walking。

"I want to be cured, so I have to come back."