After testing bee venom treatment on
his family and friends, 53-year-old Ratib Samur opened
his clinic in Gaza City in 2003.
It was met with much scepticism, but became more acceptable
after some of his patients reported positive results.
Since the Islamist movement Hamas seized
power in Gaza in 2007 the coastal enclave has been sealed
off from all but vital aid by both Israel and Egypt,
limiting the ability of Gazans to seek medical care
abroad.
This meant a growing demand for Samur's bee venom treatment,
and Samur is busy all day going from patient to patient
with his box of enraged bees dishing out bee stings.
The lack of medical options
and the economic crisis gripping the territory has sent
hundreds of men, women and children flocking to Samur's
clinic, where he pricks them with bees raised in dozens
of backyard hives.
Many of his patients suffer from wounds
inflicted during Israel's assault on Gaza at the turn
of the year aimed at halting Palestinian rocket attacks.
Samur’s patients include a 25-year-old
who is paralysed from the waist down.
Confined to Gaza, he wheels himself into Samur's clinic
each week to get stung, which he says has stabilised
his condition.
"I no longer have this pain that used to keep me
from sleeping," he said during a recent session.
"This treatment made my condition stable and now
it won't get worse.’
Nivine Ajur, a 32-year-old mother of
six suffers from rheumatoid arthritis also swears by
the treatment.
"I have been suffering from rheumatoid arthritis
for five years and nothing helped because there is no
treatment for this disease in Gaza," she said as
a bee plunged its stinger into her wrist.
"I could not climb stairs at all but now, after
five months of treatment, I can climb them six times
a day."
In another corner of the clinic 10-year-old
Mohammed Barud does not flinch even as bees gather on
his ear lobe just below his hearing aid.
"I'm used to this, and I am not afraid," he
said.
"My hearing gets better every week and I will keep
coming here until I can take out this hearing aid. The
doctor told me I would have to wear it my whole life."
Kader Khan
Editor
info@yummie.co.za
