在印度尼西亞，很多身患疾病的貧苦民眾因為負擔不起醫藥費而放棄醫院治療。不過，新近流行的“臥軌電療”似乎為他們帶來了一線希望。據悉，“臥軌電療”其實就是橫躺在兩條鐵軌上，等待列車接近時發出的電流穿過身體，以此達到治病的目的，然后在列車靠近前迅速離開鐵軌。醫學專家表示，目前并沒有證據證明這種做法對疾病有任何治療作用。印尼鐵路方面為了阻止人們進行這樣危險的活動，已經在鐵路沿線發布警告標志，并表示違者將受到三個月監禁或者罰款1800美元的處罰。偏方療法在亞洲許多地區都很流行。有關觸摸神石或吃了圣牛的糞便就能使疾病奇跡般痊愈的傳言，總能吸引很多人的注意。

Villagers lie on a railway track for an electricity therapy in Rawa Buaya, Jakarta, Indonesia.

Ignoring the red-and-white danger sign, Sri Mulyati walks slowly to the train tracks outside Indonesia's bustling capital, lies down and stretches her body across the rails.

Like the nearly dozen others lined up along the track, the 50-year-old diabetes patient has all but given up on doctors and can't afford the expensive medicines they prescribe.

In her mind, she has only one option left: electric therapy.

"I'll keep doing this until I'm completely cured," said Mulyati, twitching visibly as an oncoming passenger train sends an extra rush of current racing through her body.

She leaps from tracks as it approaches and then, after the last carriage rattles slowly by, climbs back into position.

Pseudo-medical treatments are wildly popular in many parts of Asia — where rumors about those miraculously cured after touching a magic stone or eating dung from sacred cows can attract hundreds, sometimes thousands.

That may be especially true in Indonesia, where chronic funding shortages and chaotic decentralization efforts since the 1998 ouster of Suharto have left many disillusioned with the state-sponsored health system, said Marius Widjajarta, chairman of the Indonesian Health Consumers Empowerment Foundation.

Medical experts say there is no evidence lying on the rails does any good.

But Mulyati insists it provides more relief for her symptoms — high-blood pressure, sleeplessness and high cholesterol — than any doctor has since she was first diagnosed with diabetes 13 years ago.

She turned to train track therapy last year after hearing a rumor about an ethnic Chinese man who was partially paralyzed by a stroke going to the tracks to kill himself, but instead finding himself cured.

It's a story that's been told and retold in Indonesia.

Until recently, more than 50 people would show up at the Rawa Buaya tracks every day. But the numbers have dropped since police and the state-run railroad company erected a warning sign and threatened penalties of up to three months in prison or fines of $1,800.

No one has been arrested yet, and none of the participants in train track therapy has died.

But the dedicated dozen a day who still come say they have no plans to stop.

"They told us not to do it anymore, but what else can I do," said Hadi Winoto, a 50-year-old stroke victim who has trouble walking.

"I want to be cured, so I have to come back."

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(Agencies)

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen ）