AHMEDABAD: Ayurveda along with standard Allopathic treatment has been found to be effective on COVID- 19 patients in a study done by the Gujarat government's AYUSH department with the approval of an expert Allopathic committee, officials said on Tuesday.
The study was conducted on two groups of patients admitted in the 1200-bed COVID facility in the civic hospital here, with set A receiving standard Allopathic treatment and group B getting a government-approved fixed protocol of Ayurvedic and Allopathic treatments, an official release said.
"Patients receiving Ayurvedic treatment along with Allopathic treatment recovered faster, and their symptoms were relieved faster compared to those who received only standard Allopathic treatment," it said.
A set of Ayurvedic medicines were administered to the patients in group B for a maximum of 28 days, or until they tested negative for COVID-19 in RT-PCR tests.
While those in group A tested negative for COVID-19 in an average of 12.19 days, this time was 7.85 days for those in group B, it added.
No patient in the Ayurveda treatment group reported any worsening of symptoms or the need to be admitted to an ICU, nor did any patient died, and they recovered in zero to three days, while not a single patient in group A recovered in three days, it said.
"Patients receiving Ayurveda treatment in group B were relieved of symptoms such as fever in 3.95 days, sore throat in 7.5 days, cough in 15.21 days, shortness of breath (dyspnea) in 14.76 days, cold in 10.5 days, weakness in ten days, headache in 11.75 days and nausea in 3 days," the release said.
Ayurvedic treatment given to COVID-19 patients along with standard Allopathic treatment proved to be effective as per the study, the state government said, adding that the 26 patients had given their consent to be part of it.
"They were subjected to examination before, during and after treatment and no adverse drug reaction (ADR) was found in any of them.
Moreover, RT-PCR tests were conducted before and after treatment," it said.