Patients who are tired of using conventional methods to cure their illness have now resorted to leeches for help. Hospitals in Indian-administered Kashmir have started using leeches to suck blood out of patients as part of their treatment for arthritis, gout, chronic headaches and sinusitis.

Dr Abdul Waheed Banday, from Srinagar's Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, says that there is renewed interest in leech therapy in the West. He says that although leech treatment is affordable for the poor, he does not expect its use in allopathic hospitals in the near future.

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