Practitioners of alternative medical systems, who come under the umbrella of Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy), have called upon the government to support and explore these systems to create a model health-care system in the wake of COVID-19.
With studies based on autopsies on COVID-19 patients in Italy challenging the prevailing protocols, the practitioners of indigenous medicine believe a new approach should be presented in managing the disease.
Ayur Raksha clinics
“Possibilities of the Ayush health-care system have been sidelined as the government took to the modern health-care system to prevent and mitigate the disease. Now, the government has come out with Ayur Raksha clinics that are expected to work towards prevention and rehabilitation of people who have severe to mild infection and also to provide services to those in quarantine,” says Sadath Dinakar, general secretary of the Kerala branch of the Ayurveda Medical Association of India (AMAI).
“We have submitted proposals to enable Ayurveda treatment too that could lessen the severity of symptoms and also provide symptomatic treatment, like modern medicine does,” says Dr. Dinakar.
In the absence of effective medicines against SARS-CoV-2 and the fact that most of the infections are mild and self-limiting, the potential of Ayurveda in the management of patients is immense, says Raju Thomas, president, AMAI, Kerala.
Dr. Dinakar says the arrival of non-resident Indians that will increase the number of people in quarantine shall be seen as an opportunity to provide integrated services. Trials are on in certain hospitals in India to know the efficacy of Ayurveda medicines in lessening viral load in patients and disease complications. Sreevals G. Menon, homoeopathy practitioner and managing trustee of the Global Homoeopathy Foundation, says the scope of homoeopathy in management of COVID-19 is grossly unidentified.