IT Correspondent
New Delhi, Oct 9:
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Thursday took strong objection to ayurvedic treatments prescribed by AYUSH Ministry saying that they have little scientific evidence to be called medicines to cure COVID-19 infection.
On Tuesday, Union Health Minister Dr Harshvardhan had released a document prescribing protocol for Covid prevention and treatment of asymptomatic as well as mild cases based on ayurveda and yoga. The ayurved protocol promotes use of ashwagandha, guduchi, pippali, Ayush 64 tablets in different doses, and yoga to prevent Covid, treat mild symptoms and for post-Covid self-care.
The IMA stated that the Union Health Ministry provided “impressive names” of institutions to justify their prescription of ayurvedic medicines. However, “these are based on empirical evidence which means that the evidence is anecdotal and based on individual subjective experiences. IMA sought evidence regarding the claims, asking how many ministers made the informed choice of getting this treatment and why the government had not made the data public. It further challenged union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to volunteer in a double-blind control study of the ayurvedic treatment and refrain from any kind of allopathic treatment.
Notably, the Ministry of AYUSH had in March issued some self-care guidelines as preventive health measures for boosting immunity with special reference to respiratory health amidst the coronavirus outbreak. As part of the guidelines, among other things, it recommended drinking herbal tea or “Kadha” (decoction) made from basil, cinnamon, black pepper, dry ginger, and raisins once or twice a day.
Questioning the Union health minister’s move to promote alternative medicines for Covid patients, IMA said that he was inflicting a fraud on nation & gullible patients by calling placebos as drugs.
In a press release issued by IMA’s national president Rajan Sharma and secretary general R.V. Asokan, the association asked the minister five questions and sought his response to them. “IMA prefers the following posers to the Union Health Minister who happens to be a modern medicine doctor,” it mentioned. It questioned the minister if there is satisfactory evidence regarding the claims made from AYUSH studies done on Covid patients based on the two scientific requirements. It further asked if those evidences are “weak or moderate or strong”, while adding that the evidence should be in public domain and available for scientific scrutiny.
The association also asked if all those who support claims of efficacy of AYUSH-based medicines and therapies are “prepared to subject themselves as volunteers to an independent prospective double-blind control study in prevention and treatment of Covid.
It also asked Vardhan that “how many of his ministerial colleagues have so far made the informed choice of getting treated under these (AYUSH) protocols?” Lastly, it asked: “What is stopping him from handing over Covid care and control to the AYUSH ministry?”
IMA which is the apex lobby of 3.5 lakh doctors in the country, demanded that “the Union health minister should come clean” on the questions.
