Plea In SC Seeks Permission For Homeopathic Treatment For Mild COVID-19 Cases

The Petitioners, Dr. Ravi M. Nair and Dr. Asok Kumar Das, have sought that the Ministry of AYUSH be directed to approve treatment of mild cases by homoeopathic medicines stand alone, and of severe to critical cases by adopting integrated approach of giving allopathic medicines with add-on therapy.

They have claimed, based on their "observational research" that there are a certain homeopathic medicines that could help in preventing and combating the virus and even though they have been successful in coming up with such a solution, the state boards and authorities are holding up approvals for the clinical trials.

"This act of arbitrarily holding up approval and stagnating the process at such a crucial time when millions of lives could be saved owing to these medications, violates the right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution," they have stated.

The Petitioners, through Advocate Suvidutt MS, claim that homoeopathic system of medicine has "ample scope" to treat COVID-19 successfully, as it is not based on the causative pathogenic microbes. Further, homoeopathic treatment may have the following advantages:

• Early recovery so that the chances of spread of transmission of the virus during the active stage can be decreased;
• Arrests the further progress of the disease and thus prevents further complications, so that need of institutional management having sophisticated instruments like ventilation etc. may be lessened. Thus, the burden on the big hospitals will be less.

It is submitted that whereas confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 can be done only by employing the costly RT-PCR test of nasopharyngeal swab, under homoeopathic treatment there is lesser need for costly laboratory investigations.

Other claims made by the Petitioners include:

• The number of allopathic hospital is limited whereas there are about 2 lacs homoeopathic physicians in India and are available everywhere, even at the remotest villages;
• The efficacy of homoeopathy in the management of past epidemic diseases is well proved as recorded in the history;
• Homoeopathic treatment is safe, effective, economic and hence affordable to all.