Health inspectors in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday closed a traditional medicine clinic for selling drugs that allegedly caused women’s bellies to swell as if they were pregnant.

Tran Thi Hanh, owner of the clinic, said the drugs fortify the kidney and foetus, and prescribed it for a 37 year old woman identified only as Nguyen Thi T.

While her stomach swelled up, inspectors later confirmed that the woman had no scientific signs of being pregnant.

They also found 71 similar prescriptions, each listing five kinds of medicine, given to women having problems giving birth who had earlier been asked to visit different religious places and pray to have children.

HCMC health officials initiated the inspection after unidentified sources claimed that the medicines were given to women after they prayed and made their belly big, usually for 15 months or so, newswire Vnexpress said.

All the labeled medicine and the prescriptions have been sealed, and the case will be investigated further, officials said.

Source: VNA