CHENNAI: Tears rolled down the wrinkled cheeks of Rafiya Beevi (60) as she put her hands together, along with the audience at Sri Ramakrishna Math, in lauding Dr P Gunasekaran, Deputy Director, Department of Virology, Kings Institute of Preventive Medicine and his team. It was Dr Gunasekaran and his team’s intervention with amnion therapy that has cured her of her debilitating disease.For someone who has been suffering from leprosy for the past 32 years, the sudden discovery of a treatment protocol is indeed a miracle. And miracle it is, feels Rafiya Beevi, that she was among the first volunteers on whom the clinical trial for amnion therapy was conducted. The leprosy ulcer on her feet began responding to the treatment.Rafiya Beevi and several other beneficiaries of the treatment were brought together at a function at Ramakrishna Math in Mylapore to celebrate the success of the clinical trials. Dr Gunasekaran, who rose to thunderous applause from the audience, said, “I have read a lot on the efficacy of the amnion of the placenta. So, we decided to ask the KMC hospital to supply us with uninfected placenta which is usually dumped. We took it to our labs at King Institute and separated the amnion for further research. We cleaned it and preserved it.”Placenta is the sac that covers babies in their mother’s womb. It comes out during delivery and is rich in stem cells.For the trials, the King Institute chose 30 volunteers who were supported by the Ramakrishnan Math. “We took the preserved amnion tissue and bound it on the area of the ulcers with saline and bandaged it. Every week, we opened the bandages to clean and re-bandaged with fresh amnion tissue,” noted Dr P Gunasekaran.“Within a few weeks, we noticed healing in the ulcer areas. The wound started becoming reddish, which is a sign of blood circulation. Some even reported pain in the otherwise numb limbs, which means the vascular system was stimulated. It was a great feeling to know our therapy was working, thanks to the team from King Institute who put in extra efforts to make it possible.”The doctor added, “It was so heartening to see these people smile. Most of them are living with these ulcers for more than 10 years. These ulcers had happened due to the numbness in their limbs, though the leprosy is cured.”Shiva, a social worker and an ex-government employee who worked in the leprosy unit for the past 30 years and the one who initiated this leprosy project with Sri Ramakrishna Math, said, “What is amazing about this therapy is that it heals the unhealed wounds of many years, which had failed to respond to any kind of antibiotics. On this trial, no antibiotics were given, only the amnion bandages were given. And it is a therapy from waste and it is cost effective and has no side effects.”The research team headed by Dr Gunasekaran is coming up with the amnion powder in a couple of weeks. They have also sent a proposal to the government for a centralised amnion tissue bank at the King Institute. He also said that the therapy could be used for burn victims to heal their wounds as well. The event was attended by PR Sampath, commissioner for differently-abled. An eye camp for the leprosy affected was also conducted by Sankara Netheralaya.
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