Medicine will be given to people in Dharavi, Mahim, Versova, Andheri and Juhu; homoeopathy practitioners feel scientific survey must
The drug will be administered for free
The Public Health Department of the BMC has allowed distributing homoeopathy medicine to tackle COVID-19 in wards like G-North comprising Dharavi and Mahim and K-West comprising Versova, Juhu, and Andheri. A letter by the executive health officer, the medicine will be given to 20 lakh people in these wards including those in quarantine through a private committee for free.
In a letter to the private committee, Padmaja Keskar, executive health officer of BMC said that the Union Ministry of AYUSH, Delhi has mentioned in its guidelines that Arsenicum Album 30 medicine is useful as a precautionary measure for COVID-19 pandemic. We have taken permission from the authority concerned regarding the distribution of the medicine. The committee will make available the medicine and enable its distribution. It will also guide people over how and when to consume medicine and submit a fulfillment report to the BMC.
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The letter has also been sent to the assistant commissioners of G-North and K-West wards for coordination. While Vishwas Mote, assistant commissioner of K-West ward did not comment on the letter, Kiran Dighavkar, assistant commissioner of G-North said he had received the letter.
The Ministry of AYUSH has mentioned various ways from Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homeopathy to manage the outbreak of COVID in its guidelines released on March 6 when there were 30 positive cases across India. In its advisory, AYUSH had recommended taking Arsenicum Album 30 daily once on an empty stomach for three days.
"There was a major argument over the claim and AYUSH clarified that the medicine is simply to boost immunity," said Dr Bahubali Shah, former president of Maharashtra Council of Homoeopathy. He added, "While it is the frontline medicine for the upper respiratory tract in Homeopathy, it can be used in the epidemic infection only after the medicine is proved to be genus epidemicus (a remedy that covers all the symptoms, which that particular epidemic is capable of producing). It should be given to a large number of people and a scientific study has to be done before mass level distribution. The use of any medicine without proper study harms patients."
Keskar, however, did not comment on whether the BMC will allow the use of other medicines suggested by the AYUSH ministry.
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