An 11-year-old Pakistani girl from the city of Cheechawatni in Pakistan’s Punjab province certainly didn’t receive the best in modern medicine earlier this week, which resulted in the child now requiring surgery on her feet.

The girl, named Musarrat had been battling a fever and was delirious, was taken to the hospital by her parents last week. Physicians at the hospital “diagnosed” her with typhoid fever. It is unclear whether the child was treated with antibiotics.

According to the Pakistan news source, The Express Tribune Thursday, a neighbor recommended to Musarrat’s parents that she be taken to an exorcist.

The “healing cleric”, named Maulvi Sarfaraz, for a fee of 1,500 Pakistani rupees (appoximately US$15.50) he would release her of her demonic possession. He noted he would “save her soul using his jinns and by reading from the Quran”.

Unfortunately, this included beating the girl and lighting her kerosene feet on fire. Neighbors heard the child’s screams and she was taken to the hospital where physicians said the child’s feet would require surgery and she was in critical condition.

Police sought out the exorcist who claimed he was beating the evil spirit and trying to exorcise it through her feet. “The only other way possible was to burn her head but that would have killed her,” he said.

Typhoid fever is a potentially life-threatening illness caused by the bacterium Salmonella typhi. Salmonella typhi lives only in humans. Persons with typhoid fever carry the bacteria in their bloodstream and intestinal tract. In addition, a small number of persons, called carriers, recover from typhoid fever but continue to carry the bacteria. Both ill persons and carriers shed S.typhi in their feces.

The symptoms for typhoid fever include a high fever, headaches, diarrhea or constipation, stomach pains, weakness, and loss of appetite. In some cases a flat, rose-coloured rash may appear on the torso. Typhoid fever is treatable with antibiotics.

You can get typhoid fever if you eat food or drink beverages that have been handled by a person who is shedding S. typhi or if sewage contaminated with S. typhi bacteria gets into the water you use for drinking or washing food. Therefore, typhoid fever is more common in areas of the world where handwashing is less frequent and water is likely to be contaminated with sewage.

Learn more about typhoid fever in this educational video