Thousands throng Bathini's famed ‘Fish Prasadam' at Nampally
Close to 80,000 people consumed the prasadam by midnight and the number is expected to cross over a lakh by Monday afternoon. A septuagenarian died of cardiac arrest while waiting for his turn in the queue lines during the distribution of Prasadam.
As part of the century-old tradition, the Bathini Goud's family performed pooja in the wee hours and started the distribution at 9.30 am. Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar along with PCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud, Fisheries Corporation Chairman M Sai Kumar and others inaugurated the distribution of Fish Prasadam.
The herbal medicine in the form of a paste along with a Murrel fish is inserted into the patient's mouth. If taken for four consecutive years, the medicine cures asthma, believe many patients. This has been challenged by the scientists, rationalists and other experts. Though the number has come down during the last few years, the patients' tryst with the Prasadam is not dying down as there were several who have come for three to four times consecutively. The Prasadam was not distributed during the COVID pandemic period.
The administration had made elaborate arrangements for seamless experience for the asthma patients. The premises were barricaded with 42 queue lines with separate enclosures to manage the crowd. There was heavy police bandobust at the Exhibition Grounds maintaining the queue lines. People not only from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, but several aged persons came from states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other places also arrived, hoping to getting cured from the long pending ailment. Some of them had reached late night on Saturday.
While the government provided fish, drinking water, lighting, special buses and other infrastructure, the philanthropist organisations also provided helping hands by organising food, tea and other stalls. The Badrivishal Pannalal Pitti Trust, which has been associated with the Bhathini family, Agarwal Samaj, Kanyakubz Samaj organised a mega food camp for the needy. Similarly, the Jaiswal Samaj and Jadhav Seva Mahila mandal had offered evening snacks to the visitors.
Speaking during the occasion, Ponnam Prabhakar said that the Bathini family has been doing a great service to mankind. He said that the family which has been serving the patients should be provided Padmashri by the Centre. He said that the Congress government in the State was also supporting this programme by involving eleven departments. He lauded the Badrivishal Pannalal Pitti Trust for their services, stating that the organisation started their work a week before and provided all the necessary support to the visitors.
Recalling his association with the Bathini family since 1995, PCC Chief Mahesh Goud said he had suffered with asthma and recovered after taking the Fish Prasadam. He said that several Pharma companies tried to lure and also threatened them but the family did not buckle under pressure and continued their services. He said that the state government should also recognise their services.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
US Senate confirms Trump nominee Susan Monarez as CDC director
Washington: The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday night 51-47 along party lines to confirm President Donald Trump's nominee, Susan Monarez , as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, charged with leading the response to threats against public health. Monarez, a career public health official who served as acting director of the CDC until her nomination, will report to Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , who has long questioned the safety of vaccines, contrary to scientific evidence, including suggesting a link between them and autism. The first CDC director to require Senate confirmation following amendments to the Public Health Service Act, Monarez sought to distance herself somewhat from some of Kennedy's views during her confirmation hearing last month, while also praising his leadership on multiple occasions. She told a Senate committee last month that she had not seen evidence linking vaccines and autism, and promised to prioritize vaccine availability if confirmed. Monarez, the first CDC director without a medical degree since 1953, holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focused on developing technologies to diagnose, treat and prevent infectious diseases. She is the Trump administration's second nominee for the role. In March, the president withdrew his nomination of former Republican congressman and vaccine critic Dave Weldon, a Kennedy ally, just hours before his scheduled confirmation hearing. The United States is facing a growing measles outbreak, with confirmed cases this month reaching the highest level since the disease was declared eliminated from the country in 2000. Monarez is expected to lead the response to the outbreak, and play a critical role in tackling the spread of bird flu. Monarez will lead a diminished agency, with the White House seeking to cut the CDC's budget by almost $3.6 billion, leaving it with a $4 billion budget, and Kennedy enacting a layoff plan that cut 2,400 employees, though some 700 were rehired. Kennedy has also made major decisions on vaccines in the absence of a CDC director. It is unclear if he will continue to do so. He fired all members of the CDC's vaccine expert panel, which recommends how vaccines are used and by whom, last month, and replaced them with hand-picked advisers including anti-vaccine activists. Kennedy also announced in May that the U.S. would stop recommending routine COVID vaccinations for pregnant women and healthy children, bypassing the CDC's traditional process.
Hans India
2 hours ago
- Hans India
Drug for coeliac disease may help treat severe post-Covid syndrome in children
A drug designed to treat coeliac disease -- an autoimmune disorder primarily affecting the small intestine -- has shown promise for children affected with severe post-Covid syndrome, according to a small study. Covid infection, although rare in kids, leads to multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) -- a serious condition that presents as high fevers, gastrointestinal symptoms, and life-threatening cardiac injury. The trial results, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, showed that larazotide supported children in returning to normal activities more rapidly following Covid. "While our study is small, its results are powerful and have implications not only for MIS-C, but potentially for long Covid," said lead author Lael Yonker, co-director of the Cystic Fibrosis Center, at Mass General Brigham. "Our findings suggest that larazotide is safe and quickly resolves symptoms in children with MIS-C. We are now running a clinical trial to test whether larazotide may also be a useful therapy to treat patients with long Covid," Yonker added. Current MIS-C treatments are limited. Some patients receive general anti-inflammatory drugs, but many experience a rebound of symptoms after completing a course. Such drugs are not designed to target the sticky SARS-CoV-2 viral particles that may persist in the gut. On the other hand is the orally administered Larazotide, which targets the gut and strengthens intestinal barriers to limit the number of materials -- like SARS-CoV-2 viral particles -- that exit the intestines and enter circulation. To test larazotide's efficacy and safety as an MIS-C treatment, researchers conducted a double-blind clinical trial with 12 children experiencing early-stage MIS-C. Each patient randomly received either a placebo or larazotide four times daily for 21 days, then was tracked over six months of recovery. Children who received larazotide showed faster resolution of gastrointestinal symptoms, faster clearance of SARS-CoV-2 viral particles, and more rapid return to normal activities, the team said.
New Indian Express
2 hours ago
- New Indian Express
Government to take call on doorstep drugs delivery
NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is reviewing whether to discontinue the doorstep delivery of medicines, which was allowed after the onset of Covid-19. Minister of State (MoS) at MoH&FW Anupriya Patel said this in a written reply to a parliament question asked by BJP MP from Karnataka, Jaggesh. The decision comes after a representation from chemists and druggists associations demanding the withdrawal of government approval for doorstep delivery of medicines through e-pharmacies, citing alleged misuse and an increase in the unauthorised sale of drugs, the minister stated. The representation had asked 'whether the Government proposes to withdraw its earlier notification or regulate more tightly.' In the absence of final regulation, e-pharmacy platforms continue to sell habit-forming and psychotropic drugs without prescription. The medicines are sold without any quality assurance or physical verification, said the All-India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD).
