JOIN USAyurveda sector laments lack of adequate support for Covid-19 medicines
Even as evaluations conducted in Kerala found that Ayurveda medicines were quite effective in resisting Covid-19, the Ayurveda sector is lamenting over a lack of adequate support and promotion.
According to an evaluation done by the State Ayurveda Covid-19 Response Cell, among 1.01 lakh people who took Ayurveda medicines while in quarantine following contact with Covid-positive from May 2020 to July 2020, only 0.34 per cent tested positive. During the same period, 1.67 per cent of those who did not take Ayurveda medicines tested positive.
Similarly, among 9,855 persons with mild Covid infection who took Ayurveda medicines between December 2020 and January 2021, 95.87 per cent recovered without any complications. Only 0.45 percent persons had to be referred to advanced treatment and 0.36 percent required intensive care.
A member of the State Ayurveda Covid-19 Response Cell told DH that the Ayurveda sector was allowed to treat Covid patients by October 2020 after it was found effective among those in quarantine. Even 99.1 per cent of those who took Ayurveda medicine for post-Covid medicine recovered in 30 days. But even then Ayurveda was not getting the attention and promotion it deserved.
Kerala Health Minister Veena George even said in a written reply in the Kerala Assembly recently that no one who took Ayurveda treatment for Covid were found to have developed any other health problems.
Founder and managing director of Thiruvananthapuram-based Pankajakasthuri Ayurveda Medical College, Dr J Hareendran Nair, said that a majority of Covid-19 patients who took Ayurveda treatment recovered in five to seven days. Those who have been taking Ayurveda medicines for other comorbid ailments were also found to be experiencing a very feeble effect of Covid-19.
A herbal-mineral preparation developed by Pankajakasthuri for treating Covid-19 patients was pending approval after conducting proper clinical trials. The post-Covid diabetes in those who took Ayurveda treatment was also found to be low.
The Padma Shri recipient said that the government should have given at least one-tenth of the prominence being given to modern medicine, to Ayurveda. The Ayurveda sector is not making any claims of fighting coronavirus. But the severity of the virus is being minimised by enhancing the anti-viral capabilities of human bodies by giving traditional medicine combinations. Ayurveda practitioners are respecting modern medicines. Similarly, the positive sides of Ayurveda treatment should be respected, he said.
The Kerala government has decided to rope in the service of Ayurveda sector in fighting Covid in 2020 March and formed the State Ayurveda Covid-19 Response Cell.