Fair fight: The battle against acne

JHANG:

A man’s face was severely burnt after he used a fairness cream given to him by a local quack. According to hospital officials, Kot Bahadur resident Fakhar Abbas went to a local hakeem Bashir seeking treatment for acne. The hakeem gave him a fairness cream that allegedly contained acid in it and Abbas’s face was severely burnt.

“He went back to the hakeem even though I told him to go straight to the hospital. Bashir told him he could fix the problem and it was only a reaction. He administered an injection and that made the burning worse,” said Abbas’s mother.

Abbas was taken to a basic health unit where doctors treated his burns. “He had severe scarring and severe rashes and boils have broken out on his skin.

The cream probably contained very high bleach or acid content,” said BHU Dr Safdar. Abbas’s family members said that Bashir had fled the district. They broke into his shop and raided the place. “We found a box filled with the creams he had given to my brother and we have sent them to the hospital for testing,” said Abbas’s brother Kareem.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1^st, 2011.