BENGALURU: Holding prevention to be better than cure, citizens are rushing to government homeopathy centres for doses of free immunity boosting homeopathic medicines. Karnataka has seen a drastic jump in the number of Covid-19 cases in the past few days, with a big surge in Bengaluru. Though these medicines were being given free of cost over the past few months, the rush has increased multifold in the past couple of days, in keeping with Covid cases.
However, government homeopathic doctors are not handing over the magic pills like earlier; they are assessing the condition of each patient before giving medicines, and those showing ILI or any Covid-19 symptoms are being referred to fever clinics. The queues are lengthening due of multiple reasons, apart from the rise in cases -- media reports of community spread, besides success stories citizens have heard from friends, colleagues and relatives in states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. “The health ministry had issued an advisory and circular to all states to supply free homeopathic immunity boosting medicines to everyone.
While states like Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh aggressively distributed the pills, Karnataka, West Bengal and some other states have not. We can only advise. These are arsenic album pills and have no side-effects as they are traditional medicines, and tests have also shown positive signs,” said Debatta Nayak, nodal officer for Covid-19, Ministry of Ayush. Citizens who have shown no symptoms are being given 1-7 pills to be taken thrice a day for three days, based on their body type and other medical conditions.
These medicines are similar to the immunity boosting pills being given to Covid-19 workers. Meenakshi Negi, commissioner, Department of Ayush, said there are 650 dispensaries and 200 Ayush hospitals in the state, where people can procure these medicines. Earlier, they were distributed in villages and other areas, based on requests from resident welfare associations, but not any more. With a rise in cases, they cannot be given to all, and are prescribed only after a thorough examination.