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Speaker
1: |
Moscow.
The hub of a country in the grip of enormous change. Russians now find
themselves caught between the old and the new. Eager to rush into a bright
and promising future but clinging to ways of the past. 24-year-old medical
student Luda Beligana has come to this alternative
medicine clinic for a treatment once frowned upon by the medical fraternity.
A treatment now enjoying a revival. |
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It
takes three tries before the hungry leeches are fixed to Luda's neck. |
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Luda: |
[Speaking
foreign language]. |
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Speaker
3: |
[Speaking
foreign language]. |
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Speaker
1: |
These
are no ordinary leeches, however. These are medicinal-grade leeches and
they're turning into big business. About an hour's drive from Moscow sits the
International Centre for Medicinal Leeches. If you don't like blood sucking
slimy creatures, this is your worst nightmare. All the staff here seem to
have a peculiar fondness for their charges. |
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Speaker
4: |
[Speaking
foreign language]. |
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Speaker
1: |
They
also like their food fresh. |
|
Speaker
4: |
[Speaking
foreign language]. |
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Speaker
1: |
Without
the layer of tissue to bite through, these vampiritic
little creatures would refuse to feed. Happily they gorge themselves until
fattened they let go. |
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Speaker
5: |
But
now you must see the room where leeches are preparing to the stage of
[inaudible]. This is the sex room. |
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Speaker
6: |
This
is the sex room? |
|
Speaker
5: |
Yes. |
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Speaker
1: |
The
brains behind this booming business is pharmacologist Dr.
[Ginary Nickanoff]. His
centre produces 1.5 million leeches each year and the increasing demand is
set to boost that figure. |
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Dr. Nickanoff: |
[Speaking
foreign language]. |
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Speaker
1: |
Customer
can buy a single leech for the equivalent of just 60 cents. But clients
include major clinics and now a whole new clientele in the cosmetics
industry. Face creams, eye creams, even toothpaste made from leech extract. Dr. Nickanoff has launched a
major new international line of cosmetics. |
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Dr. Nickanoff: |
[Speaking
foreign language]. |
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Speaker
1: |
It's
not so much what they take out, but what they put in that's valuable. Leeches
are likened to tiny pharmaceutical factories whose secretions are reputed to
have many therapeutic benefits. The bad news for the leeches: They can only
be used once on a patient and that's their last supper. |