Train track therapy spreads to Malaysia
A vendor cleans fish amongst the railroad tracks in Jakarta on September 28, 2010. Some sick residents of West Jakarta have taken to lying across railroad tracks in hopes the electric current will somehow cure their ailments. The practice has spread to Malaysia.
The Indonesian folk cure fad of lying across train tracks to cure various ailments has spread to neighboring Malaysia, according to the Jakarta Globe.
A railway spokesman told the Globe that sick people around the capital, Kuala Lumpur, are now mimicking Indonesians who in recent months have tried lying on tracks to absorb electrical current.
The electricity, they say, can cure illnesses ranging from diabetes to arthritis.
News reports of the fad, such as this video, have prodded authorities to ask that sick locals get off the tracks and seek cures elsewhere.
The folk cure's faithful, many of whom are too poor to afford decent medical care, will sit on the tracks even as trains rush by on parallel tracks just feet away.
Malaysia authorities are stepping up spot checks to get people off the tracks, the Globe reports.