NEW DELHI: An advisory by the Union Ministry of Ayush to treat Coronavirus through Ayurveda, homeopathy and Unani on Wednesday evoked strong reactions from public health specialists who called it “misleading and dangerous”.
Apart from advising on practicing good personal hygiene, the advisory advocated various concoctions from Ayurveda and Unani for which little or no evidence is available in fighting such serious infections.
The ministry advised people to take homoeopathic medicine “Arsenicum album 30” for three days on empty stomach “as a prophylactic medicine against the infection”.
Experts, however, said that such an advisory could be detrimental in case of an outbreak in India.
“While the preventive measures mentioned in the advisory are not specific to any form of medicine, such prescriptions from alternate forms of medicine are problematic as there is no scientific evidence at all,” said Anant Bhan, who specialises in bioethics and health policy.
Public health expert Oommen C Kurian said those advocating these “preventive measures” are possibly hoping that the virus doesn’t spread to India.
“If it does, their medicines are not going to help.” Dr R V Asokan, general secretary of the Indian Medical Association, said the advisory was against the “promoting scientific temper”.