List: It looks like the Mexican authorities are tightening there restrictions
on alt. med. clinics operating within their borders. Does anyone have more
facts concerning the article below. I would also like to know more about
Hulda Clark's formal training as a researcher. Does anyone know for certain
how she obtained her training? Roger
By Sandra Dibble and Penni Crabtree
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS (San Diego Union
Tribune--www.uniontribune.com, then search under Hulda Clark)
June 21, 2001
TIJUANA -- Mexican government officials said yesterday that they are
closing a loophole that has allowed the border area to flourish as a mecca
for unproven alternative medical treatments -- including those offered by two
controversial San Diego companies.
For decades, alternative clinics, many run by foreign operators from
San Diego and elsewhere, have drawn thousands of desperately ill patients to
Tijuana for experimental therapies.
Now, for the first time, Mexican immigration authorities will seek the
approval of local health officials as they decide which foreigners should be
allowed into Mexico to practice medicine and other health-related
professions.
"It will help us have a lot better control over these clinics and what
they are doing," said Dr. Alfredo Gruel Culebro, who oversees clinics and
hospitals for the Baja California Health Department.
Baja health authorities said yesterday that they have banned
alternative treatments at a Tijuana clinic operated by San Diego-based
BioPulse International. Patients typically paid more than $27,000 for a month
of therapy that included insulin-induced comas and vaccines derived from a
patient's own urine.
Also prohibited from offering any alternative therapies is Century
Nutrition, whose San Diego-based operator, Hulda Clark, devised a low-voltage
electronic "zapper" she claims kills parasites, bacteria and viruses.
Both clinics were temporarily closed last February -- BioPulse for
conducting unsanctioned therapies and Century Nutrition for allegedly
operating without a license. But the Baja California Health Department
announced the final decisions in both cases this week. Both have been fined,
but health authorities would not disclose the amount.
When reached by telephone, BioPulse chief executive Reid Jilek said he
was on another call and hung up. Jilek and BioPulse employees did not respond
to numerous telephone messages.
Since authorities took action against BioPulse in February, the
company's stock price has fallen 91 percent. It closed yesterday at 46 cents.
Tim Bolen, spokesman for Century Nutrition, said Clark's attorneys are
going through Mexico's courts to appeal the health department's decision.
Clark had all the proper permits, he said, and should not have been closed in
the first place. Gruel of the health department "doesn't know what the hell
he's talking about," Bolen said.
Some former BioPulse clients applauded the move by Mexican authorities.
Laurel Snyder of Encinitas, whose sister, Carol Snyder, paid $22,500 for
breast cancer treatment at BioPulse's Tijuana clinic last year, said she's
"happy" that BioPulse can't offer its alternative therapies in Mexico. She
said BioPulse had promised her sister -- whose cancer has spread to her bones
and is currently in critical condition -- a more than 60 percent chance of
remission.
"I don't want to see anyone else get hurt," Snyder said. "I think we
were intentionally misled -- and to abuse that kind of trust is terrible."
The changes in procedure for the Mexican federal immigration
authorities come as Baja California health authorities have struggled to gain
control over the alternative health care facilities that flourish in the
Tijuana-Rosarito area. The clinics draw most of their patients from the
United States, though some fly in from as far away as England and Korea for
treatment.
In the past few decades, the region has grown into a center for
alternative health therapies not sanctioned by the medical mainstream --
either in the United States or Mexico.
Ranging from Laetrile therapy to insulin comas to shark-cell
injections, the treatments draw desperately ill cancer patients and others
who say they have lost faith in traditional medicine. Such patients staunchly
defend alternative care as their last and best hope.
BioPulse and Century Nutrition could potentially resume offering
alternative therapies if the federal government approves their requests to
conduct experimental treatments, Gruel said. But they would be limited to a
small number of patients, and they could not charge for the treatments, he
said.
Clark, who was working in Mexico on a visa that describes her as a
"nutritional consultant" to the clinic, is suspended from working in the
medical profession in Mexico unless she gains clearance under the new policy,
Gruel said.
Under the new rules, foreigners who wish to practice medicine in Mexico
will have to go through a series of steps, including having their diplomas
translated into Spanish and reviewed by a Mexican higher education
institution.
Clark "can start the process of authorization of whatever credentials
she has," Gruel said. "If and when she has the authorization, we will abide
by it."
Health and immigration officials said recent cases involving BioPulse,
Century Nutrition and other alternative clinics woke them up to the need to
coordinate their efforts.
In the past, Mexican immigration authorities granted visas without
consulting health authorities. And health authorities reviewed clinics
without questioning immigration status.
From now on, Mexican immigration officials will consult with Baja
California health authorities over "anything that has to do with clinics,
with nutrition, health, anything that smells of medicine," said Martiniano
Valdes of the Mexican immigration office in Tijuana.
In the past, applicants would tell immigration authorities that they
wanted to work as clinical assistants and then go on to practice medicine.
"These people often make a mockery of the authorities," Valdes said.
"They have often had us fooled."
--
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