Highly infectious disease results from drinking camel cocktail of milk and a mixer

Sometimes religion, folklore, and "alternative medicine" get mixed together in very unhealthy ways.  In the news story below, "hadith" refers to Muslim writings outside the Qu'ran, that some Muslims consider also sacred, others reject entirely except as folkloric because they do attribute sayings to the Prophet Mohamed.  Strongly pro-hadith Qu'ranic scholars, however, use these writings as primary legal documents to make rulings under Sharia law.   In Turkey, fortunately, a prominent former cleric now a member of Parliament, Ishan Ozkes, says that attribution of hadith status to the folkloric idea is incorrect.

Let's hope here's one item of folklore that will not become a fad.

— Albert Gedraitis




Hurriyet Daily News, Istanbul (Dec30,2k12)

Turkish men hospitalized after drinking camel's milk, urine

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

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Two Turkish men were hospitalized on arrival to Turkey after drinking camel's milk and urine while on an umrah visit, daily Hürriyet reported. 
 
The men believed the camel's milk and urine to be good for health, claiming it was written in a hadith. An imam, according to the Turkish men, also drank the milk and urine with them. 
 
The visitors were hospitalized due to high fever and unusual levels of liver enzymes. Further tests revealed that the two men had been infected with the "alkhurma" virus, reportedly catching the virus from the milk.  
 
The alkhurma virus is very dangerous and highly contagious and has a fatality rate of 25 to 35 percent, daily Hürriyet reported. 
 
İhsan Özkes, a retired religious cleric and current member of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), denied the existence of any hadith that would encourage people to drink camel's milk and urine.
 
"Those who did drink it must have been ignorant," he said.

April/19/2012