With no vaccine in sight and the number of Coronavirus cases surging across the country, the union AYUSH ministry has issued multiple advisories for medical practitioners as well as common people. Ranging from the use of Unani concoctions including Sharbat Unnab and Tiryaq Arba, the ministry has also advised people to take homoepathic medicine Arsenicum Album 30 to improve immunity. However, questions have been raised on the efficacy of these remedies along with experts accusing the Ayush ministry of giving a false sense of security to people.
The criticism comes in the wake of the statement issued by world’s top health body WHO which has said that there is no evidence of any medicine that can cure or prevent the spread of the virus.
Home remedies as well as traditional solutions may alleviate the symptoms and provide a little comfort, but we have not found that any current medicine can cure or prevent Covid-19, the WHO said. It further said that it does not promote the self-medication of the virus with any medicines including antibiotics. However, the WHO acknowledged that different trials are going in different parts of the world to check the efficacy of traditional as well as western medicines.
Recently, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has also permitted the use of hydroxychloroquine in extremely serious cases. A government hospital in Jaipur, after taking due consent of two patients, had administered an HIV drug combination treatment on them which cured the patients.
However, the ICMR as well as health experts are encouraging such usage as the last resort after taking due consent of the patients. Questions about the efficacy of such combinations have also been raised in some research papers which have claimed that the usage of such drugs can further endanger the lives of the patients.
