Israeli homeopath Rakhel Shabi reports on a survey of the use of homeopathy in Israel during the first half year of the COVID-19 Pandemic. (Copy)

https://hpathy.com/homeopathy-papers/homeopathy-in-israel-during-the-first-half-year-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-report-of-a-survey-trends-and-opportunities/

Israeli homeopath Rakhel Shabi reports on a survey of the use of homeopathy in Israel during the first half year of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Abstract

A preliminary, exploratory survey encompassing the feedbacks of 10% of the Israeli Homeopathic community investigated the trends and results in treating 907 patients suffering from coronavirus or coronavirus-like symptoms during the first seven months since its local outbreak. Patterns of the use of set protocols vs. individualized remedies selection, the conditions under which vitamins were preferred over homeopathic intervention and the reported results are discussed, along with a short review of the Israeli homeopathic community in the last few decades and the challenges and opportunities it faces during the coronavirus pandemic.

Does anyone possibly still remember that the Olympic Games were originally supposed to take place this past summer? Wouldn’t the very idea of such spectacular mass events utterly just send shivers up and down one’s spine nowadays? Sport addicts and trivia fans can still indulge in a new Olympic sport, i.e. different countries’ success rates in handling the COVID-19 spread. Yes, a table now even reports updates regarding the global “winners” and “losers”.

This article aims at describing patterns of homeopathic intervention during the COVID-19 outbreak and crises that have followed, while shedding some light on the Israeli homeopathic community, its unique status and the new opportunities it may now have. It may be said that global society is transforming before our very eyes, either adapting or perishing under extreme circumstances. A local zoom into the measures taken by a small professional community might be an interesting test case, as they could offer some sustainable models developed during the imposed lockdowns.

Keeping a Delicate Balance

This article is written as Israel has a total of 48,000 COVID-19 patients, 1,195 of which are hospitalized (581 in severe condition) and an overall of 1,196 deceased since the outbreak. The country is emerging from a second nationwide lockdown, imposed in spite of the fact that infection rates demonstrated that only a fraction of Israeli cities were a reason for concern.

The private sector has been intermittently paralyzed for the greater part since the local breakout of COVID-19 in March, and vulnerable groups have been badly damaged – in a time when Israel is coping with a politically unstable period.

It therefore follows that the explosive climate of distrust might nurture nothing but an inevitable, severe decline in public trust towards government policy and a conscious noncompliance with guidelines, which are widely thought to be set primarily by political decision makers.

Israel sadly broke a world record in becoming the first country to re-enter a national lockdown, this one being more strictly enforced by fines, police and army patrolling.

The second lockdown hasn’t included mobile phone tracking and curfews exercised during the first lockdown, which were later deemed unnecessary. This COVID-19 failure, taken in its context means political instability and a population that is distrustful, less cooperative and also more anxious and desperate at times.

Israeli Homeopathic Community in Context

With its 9.2 million citizens and an estimated 29,000 practicing MDs[i], it is estimated that around 400 classical homeopaths are currently practicing in Israel. This number was reached at by crossing numbers of homeopathic software holders[ii]. At present there are 187 paying members in the Israeli Association for Classical Homeopathy (IACH, not to be confused with Prof. Vithoulkas’ IACH). The number was higher in previous decades and the decline can be viewed as part of the global trend.

Background and History

It may be said that the homeopathic seeds first sprouted in Israel in the 1930s, after being imported by Dr. Ya’akov Eric Yarus (1892-1984) and Dr. Eugene Heiman (1910-2002), two immigrants from Germany.

Despite the fact that they had gained a substantial recognition, and yet again in accordance with  homeopathy’s ebb and flow during the 20th century, it wasn’t until the mid-1970’s that a group of homeopaths started studying with Joseph Reves (who also trained in Germany), to form about a decade later the Israeli School of Homeopathy headed by Dr. Chaim Rosenthal.

The first class to have trained there established, upon graduation, the IACH in 1993. The following years saw the soaring of the profession worldwide, and the local community flourished to reach a peak of 4 schools acknowledged by the Association and another three independent programs. Many seminars were being held during that Golden Age, featuring world renowned homeopaths. Despite some promising negotiations with the Higher Education Committee, the 4 year programs, supervised and acknowledged by the IACH, have not been recognized as academic.

To date, all four health service providers in Israel offer their customers homeopathic consultations, and some private insurance plans offer a certain refund for private consultations. In other words, the entire Israeli population, eligible for national health services by law, has some degree of access to homeopathy.

Homeopathic treatment has also been available in outpatient clinics in five leading hospitals. It should be nevertheless stated that such elaborate activity and de-facto recognition does not stem from an acknowledgement by the medical establishment, but relies on ground work made by diligent homeopaths and sheer financial interests of the health service providers.

No laws are in favor of homeopathy nor against it, and the practice is possible owing solely to the Basic Law of Freedom of Occupation. The Ministry of Health’s only rule in this field is with regard to the manufacturing and dispatching of remedies, which is allowed solely in pharmacies (and not private clinics).

The same neutral policy seems to have been applied during COVID-19 times. Unprepared and in shortage of viable solutions, authorities have nevertheless not made any strategic shift with regard to homeopathic interventions in hospitals.

Homeopathy and the First COVID-19 Survey

A recent data-collecting survey explored the patterns of homeopathic treatment during the COVID-19 period. 42 homeopathic practitioners took part in it, the vast majority of which (95%) are members of the Israeli Association for Classical Homeopathy and none is an MD.

As mentioned before, the Association presently comprises of 187 registered practitioners, meaning that the survey covers 1/5 of its members. It is a probable assumption that this sample represents patterns within the entire professional community.

Channels
71% of the respondents provided the treatment on one of the two special, free coronavirus hotlines now operating in Israel – either under the auspice of the Association or the HHNI, part of the international project led by Jeremy Sherr. 78% of the therapists also provided service privately.

Number of Patients
Based on the reports of those 42 homeopaths, a total of 907 people sought homeopathic assistance during the period between March and September. It should be emphasized that 57% of them were verified coronavirus patients, while the rest complained of related and similar pictures, though unverified. 58% of the patients had never contacted a homeopath before.

Communication with medical professionals
Approximately 21% of the respondents reported they cooperated with medical authorities regarding the treatment of the coronavirus symptoms. 56% of those cases were referrals from physicians, 44% were from pharmacists and 33% were from a nursing staff.

Prevention or Treatment
73% of the respondents stated that they had received inquiries from people who were found negative for COVID-19 or who had not been tested yet and just wanted some preventive treatment. In cases of preventive treatment inquiries, 86% of the homeopaths recommended vitamins, and in 42% of the cases the advice was to monitor the condition and treat homeopathically if necessary.

11% of the referrals were made by existing patients who asked for a preventive treatment and were recommended to repeat their ‘chronic’ remedy. It is interesting that in 43% of the cases, the therapists recommended preventive treatment using a given protocol (according to one of the methods published recently, be it Sankaran’s, Sherr’s etc.). Only 9% of the therapists indicated that prevention was not the right method for them, and that conditions should only be treated based on the presence of indicative symptoms.

Verified Cases
95% of the therapists indicated that they also treated cases verified for COVID-19. It is important to emphasize that in many cases, especially on the hotlines, the therapeutic communication was partial and patients were not always fully committed to the process. Treatments were therefore often given in situations that might better be called ‘Corona-like’, as some patients preferred not to do the test but just improve clinically.

Severity of Conditions

A-symptomatic Patients
54% respondents reported they had no a-symptomatic patients.

Patients with a Mild Condition
45% of the patients reported mild symptoms. The criteria for assessing the severity of such a condition (and the following conditions as well) were kindly shared by Jeremy Sherr and his team and include mild fever, muscle and joint pain, dry cough, runny nose, sinus problems, headache, nausea, poor appetite, loss of sense of smell and/or taste, diarrhea, weakness, restlessness or anxiety. In more than two-thirds of such cases (67.5%, to be exact) the result of the homeopathic treatment was defined as ‘excellent’ (score 5/5 on a scale of 1 to 5), and in 27.5% of the cases as ‘very good’ (score 4/5). In other words, in 95% of mild conditions treated by homeopathy, the result was summarized as ‘very good’ to ‘excellent’.

Patients with a Moderate Condition
Half of the therapists reported an ‘excellent’ result of the homeopathic treatment in a moderate condition and in 31.3% of the cases defined the result as ‘very good’ (score 4/5). In other words, in 81% of moderate conditions there seemed to be a very good to excellent improvement with the help of homeopathy. 24.9% of the patients who sought a solution to their symptoms were defined as having a condition of moderate severity. The criteria for assessing the severity as such were high fever, severe muscle and joint pain, severe headache, weakness and severe heaviness, dry cough, significant difficulty in breathing, sticky phlegm that is difficult to expectorate, nausea, vomiting, loss of sense of smell, loss of taste, loss of appetite and general decline.

Patients with a Severe Condition
Overall, 25 patients were reported to have been treated by 1/3 of the homeopaths. The criteria for assessing a condition as severe were damage to the lung tissue, severe pneumonia, deficient oxygen saturation, general collapse, liver problems, renal failure due to dehydration, myocarditis, pericarditis, heart failure or atrial fibrillation that began near diagnosis. Based on the feedback of those who reported treatments in such conditions, the success rate ranges from ‘excellent’ (in 15% of cases) to ‘very good’ (38.5%) and to ‘moderate’ (23.1%). 23% of respondents who treated severe conditions reported not seeing any improvement in the patients’ condition.

In 43% of the cases, treatment of the severe condition lasted up to two weeks, and in 26% of cases up to a month. In 8.7% of cases, treatment lasted up to a week and in other cases patients did not persevere. With regard to patients who were hospitalized due to the clinical severity and later received homeopathic treatment, 38% were hospitalized for a period of up to two weeks, and about 15% were hospitalized for up to a month. The success of inpatient care was defined as ‘very good’ to ‘excellent’ in about 70% of cases.

Patients in Recovery Stages
Nearly half of the homeopaths reported having treated patients at various stages of the recovery process from COVID-19 infection. Recovery in this context meaning a stage in which the condition has already improved before the homeopathic treatment began, yet still involves symptoms such as significant fatigue, significant cough and the like. In total, there were 88 reports of such a condition, out of which a ‘very good’ to ‘excellent’ improvement rate was reported in 85% of the cases.

Patients Re-experiencing the Chronic Condition
Such a stage was defined as a process where the chronic picture is already evident or intermingled with certain COVID-19 symptoms. Homeopathy was given to 59 patients at this stage and the results were assessed as ‘very helpful’ and ‘ excellent’ in 73% of the cases.

Discussion

This survey offers a real-time glimpse into the invaluable potential of homeopathy in times of a major health crisis, and echoes with similar statistics from previous epidemics as early as the beginning of the 19th century[iii]. The current demand for homeopathy in Israel seems to be significantly increased, with as many as 58% more patients calling – certainly something to take into consideration in a challenging era for the profession.

Reported clinical results seem impressive – yet might be interpreted as preaching to the converted. On the one hand, we homeopaths know the potential of the profession – and warmly remember D.A. Dewey’s dramatic documentation of the Spanish Flu period in his “Homoeopathy in Influenza – a Chorus of Fifty in Harmony”. On the other hand, control groups need to be meticulously compared against the reports of homeopaths.

All of these aspects should be viewed in the context of an understanding of the limitations of a retrospective examination. Future surveys might bring up more elaborate data in terms of volume of respondents and the delving into specifics of treatments.

The survey, not being a prospective study, has not used probability sampling technique but rather relied on the homeopaths’ cooperation. It therefore couldn’t use any randomized allocation, nor were there any control groups.

Such control groups require a careful segmentation based on each age and medical background of the patients. Future surveys will also need to delve deeper also into the ongoing results of the coronavirus pandemic and in particular its post-viral phase, which is lately proving to be more significant than previously thought.

Based on the results, recent experience in Israel might contribute to the revival of the profession in showing its efficacy both in acute conditions and its sequelae. Surveys take some know-how, some willingness, an infrastructure for the hotline(s) to offer a homeopathic assistance by professionals and a data collecting person. Its next challenge might deepen the understanding of the homeopathic effect on the coronavirus sequelae, by monitoring the long-term effects after tests confirm the disappearance of the virus.

I wish to thank all the volunteers on the hotlines and to the respondents who shared their experience in that survey. Many thanks to Jeremy Sherr for his willingness to share the criteria for assessing the severity of the coronavirus conditions. Jeremy Sherr is leading a global project to treat the victims of COVID-19 and its Israeli arm is called HHNI.

[i] According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, https://www.cbs.gov.il/en/Pages/default.aspx

[ii] It is difficult to assess whether they practice full time, part time or perhaps have stopped practice.

[iii] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29753299/

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About the author

Rakhel Shabi

Rakhel Shabi RCHom PCH is a Tel Aviv based homeopath, lecturer and editor of the Israeli Association for Classical Homeopathy's Journal. She has been practicing since returning from her post graduate studies with Jeremy Sherr's Dynamis in England in 1998. Rakhel has been teaching homeopathy, be it conducting provings (having participated and organizing a few), sharing her passion for the Organon or teaching Materia Medica. Having worked on the IACH's board for over a decade, she reformulated the guidelines for homeopathy teaching programs. Rakhel also established the first community clinic in Israel, later sharing with colleagues her experience in running such non-profit projects that reach the less privileged communities. She writes extensively for several newspapers and journals and is frequently interviewed on national radio. She's also a graduate with honors from the Psychology department, an Argentinian Tango dancer, an avid cat lover and an amateur silversmith. Visit her site at https://www.rshabi.com/ and consider contributing to Jeremy Sherr's HHA project by purchasing her Lac camelus dromedary proving on his website at https://www.dynamis.edu/provings-from-other-sources/

Indian Authorities Propose Use of Homeopathy to Prevent Coronavirus (Copy)

Critics of the practice say the guidance is irresponsible and could give users a false sense of security.

Alakananda Dasgupta

Feb 7, 2020

730

ABOVE: © ISTOCK.COM, VGAJIC

The Indian government’s Ministry of AYUSH, which promotes alternative medicine systems in the country, released a health advisory on January 29 that advocates the use of homeopathy and traditional remedies, such as Indian systems of medicine, to ward off infections of the newly circulating 2019-nCoV coronavirus. This includes the use of a homeopathic preparation called Arsenicum album 30C and two drops of sesame oil in each nostril each morning for prevention, and Unani medicines (treatments based on the teachings of Hippocrates and Galen) to mitigate symptoms of coronavirus infection. While AYUSH cites centuries of practitioners’ experiences with these products as evidence behind its advice, the media and the scientific community criticized the guidance as being counterproductive in dealing with a serious health emergency. 

“It is profoundly irresponsible of the Ministry of AYUSH to endorse homeopathy as this entirely undermines public understanding of science and medicine, and elevates pseudoscience with potentially dangerous consequences,” says David Robert Grimes, an Irish science writer who has published research showing homeopathy to be ineffective, in an email to The Scientist. Grimes has argued that the proposed mechanisms of homeopathy are implausible when analyzed from a physical and chemical perspective, and says that it is not surprising, therefore, that the biological effects of homeopathy cannot be measured in large-scale clinical trials. 

To date, more than 31,000 people in more than two dozen countries have been infected with 2019-nCoV, including three confirmed cases in India. According to the World Health Organization, there is no intervention yet identified that can treat the virus, although a number of studies are underway to find therapeutics and develop a vaccine. 

Using homeopathy as an alternative therapy risks forfeiting effective causative or symptomatic treatments or—if such treatments are not available—creating a false sense of security.

—Edzard Ernst, University of Exeter

Until then, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the only way to prevent infection is to avoid contact with the virus and people who are sick, to wash your hands, and not touch your face. But the Central Council for Research In Homeopathy (CCRH) of the Ministry of AYUSH claims that there are other preventive options. 

Anil Khurana, who heads the CCRH, tells The Scientist that Arsenicum album 30C, a homeopathic solution prepared by diluting aqueous arsenic trioxide until little or no arsenic remains that is used in respiratory disorders and has been in widespread use for more than 220 years with a good safety record, was found to be an effective prophylactic during the swine flu epidemic in India in 2009. A study conducted by Robert Mathie of the British Homeopathic Association and his group, in collaboration with the CCRH, reported in Homeopathy that of the various homeopathic medicines given to patients with swine flu symptoms, Arsenicum album was most successful in reducing fever, cough, runny nose, sore throat, and headache. There was no control arm. In another, placebo-controlled trial conducted by the CCRH, homeopathic medicines were also found to reduce flu-like symptoms. 

These results led the CCRH to look to possible homeopathic interventions against the new coronavirus. Before any 2019-nCoV infections had turned up in India, scientists at CCRH collated the clinical features of a recent cluster of cases in China that was published in The Lancet on January 24, which they fed into a tool called the homeopathic repertory. The repertory is a database of historic texts on homeopathy, and when practitioners enter symptoms, the tool fetches the texts’ recommendations on which medicine needs to be given. “Every time we repertorize a patient, we are pretty much consulting all these generations of homeopaths that have contributed to this database,” says Bernado Merizalde, a homeopathy practitioner at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and the prime general secretary of Liga Medicorum Homeopathica Internationalis, a homeopathic doctors’ association. By matching the clinical features, the repertory found Arsenicum album 30C to be a suitable fit for the current outbreak. 

See “Where Coronaviruses Come From”

The basic premise of homeopathy is that a medicine that produces a set of symptoms when given to a healthy person under controlled settings can be prescribed in a highly diluted form to a diseased person with those same symptoms, explains Kushal Banerjee, a homeopathic physician based in New Delhi. This is what is known as Similia similibus curentur in homeopathic parlance, a Latin phrase that means “like cures like.” Kalyan Banerjee, Kushal’s father and a renowned homeopathic practitioner, says that by boosting the immune system of the body, Arsenicum album can potentially reduce the virulence of the coronavirus, thereby tempering disease intensity.

“We don’t claim 100 percent protection with Arsenicum album. Just taking the medicine will not work,” says Khurana. “All general measures for airborne infections have to be taken.” He further adds that if people get infected, they should promptly seek medical care.

Such caveats do not assuage the concerns of homeopathy’s detractors, who say there is no rigorous scientific evidence to indicate homeopathic remedies can prevent coronavirus infection or mitigate symptoms. “The claim of some homeopaths that homeopathic remedies are effective in treating or preventing coronavirus infections is not based on any evidence at all,” Edzard Ernst, an emeritus professor at the University of Exeter in the UK and a critic of homeopathy, tells The Scientist in an email. Ernst points to a study that found no difference between Arsenicum album and a placebo in preventing fever after vaccination. Other studies in which homeopathy was found to be ineffective include one on acute respiratory tract infections, another on middle ear infections, and yet another on influenza-like illness.

“Using homeopathy as an alternative therapy risks forfeiting effective causative or symptomatic treatments or—if such treatments are not available—creating a false sense of security,” says Ernst. “In any case, it would be a waste of resources.”

See “Scientists Scrutinize New Coronavirus Genome for Answers”

Even among proponents of homeopathy, there is disagreement about the best way to prevent the coronavirus. Mitchell Fleisher, the second vice president of the American Institute of Homeopathy, says that the Lancet article that scientists at CCRH used to come up with their advice does not provide enough information on symptoms to make an accurate homeopathic prescription.

He says that perhaps the best way to validate the therapeutic value of homeopathy would be to perform a comparative clinical outcome study of acute coronaviral infection by giving individualized homeopathic medicines to one experimental group and allopathic medicines to another, with a minimum of 250 patients in each group. “A careful and honest, statistical analysis of the study results will speak the scientific truth,” he says.

Countering Fleisher’s proposal, Grimes says that this is completely unethical. “Homeopathy has no plausible mechanism of action, and it is downright irresponsible to suggest it in a trial for a serious potential pandemic. Large scale studies of homeopathy have clearly shown over decades the same result—that it simply does not work,” he says.

Alakananda Dasgupta is a freelance science journalist and physician based in New Delhi, India. Follow her on Twitter @AlakanandaDasg1 or email her at alakanandadasgupta@gmail.com.

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/indian-authorities-propose-use-of-homeopathy-to-prevent-coronavirus-67075

Dr. Bhatia on Covid 19 symptoms (Copy)

Dr. Bhatia recommends Bryonia alba 6CH or 30CH, as a prophylactic. It can be given (only to affected population) once a day, till days become warmer and the epidemic subsides (hopefully).

As the spread of COVID-19 has slowed its burn through the Navajo Nation, several Indigenous filmmakers and creators have managed to complete part of the production of a documentary. (Copy)

Healing Modality

Through pandemic, Indigenous creators film documentary about the parallels of homeopathy and traditional methods for holistic healing on Navajo Nation Donald Denetdeal is the primary consultant for the documentary on the Navajo holistic perspective of healing. | Jai Antonio

By Katherine Lewin

| September 29

Help keep local journalism fighting for you. Donate today to Friends of the Reporter.

As the spread of COVID-19 has slowed its burn through the Navajo Nation, several Indigenous filmmakers and creators have managed to complete part of the production of a documentary. Its focus is even more relevant in today's modern pandemic life: the striking parallels between homeopathy and traditional Navajo healing practices and how homeopathy could be used as another mode of healing on the reservation.

Hózhóogo Iiná—Homeopathy for Indigenous America, directed and produced by Leahn Cox and funded by donations to GoFundMe and a John Pinto Grant from the New Mexico Film Office, is both a personal and professional endeavor.

Cox is a member of the Navajo Nation who grew up in Gallup, though she now lives and works in Santa Fe. Her upbringing as a Diné woman and her experience and education in homeopathy and other healing arts drove her to start the project, which she plans to screen in chapter houses across the Navajo Nation, as well as in Albuquerque and border towns.

"I definitely have had interest in bringing homeopathy and making it more available in places with limited access to these types of alternative resources, particularly now in the Navajo Nation," Cox tells SFR. "I have been trying to offer [homeopathy] where I live, where I'm from, and to family members. But there's so much confusion and so that's one reason the film, I think, could put it in terms of understanding it in the sense of talking about ancient Indigenous knowledge."

Read more

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The GoFundMe has raised $2,475 of a $20,000 goal. The state grant named after a late Navajo senator gave the project $5,000, which has funded the bulk of the work. Cox aims to raise at least another $5,000 to pay for an animator for a portion of Hózhóogo Iiná. She also hopes to turn it into a larger project where she explores the use of homeopathy in other Indigenous communities across North America.

Germans developed homeopathic medicine over 200 years ago, and based it on two main premises: that a disease can be cured by a substance that produces similar symptoms in healthy people and that the lower the dose of the medication, the greater its effectiveness, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. The medicines used in homeopathy come from plants, animals and minerals.

The fundamentals of homeopathy tie in neatly with Navajo traditional healing practices, Cox says.

"Homeopathy is about this vibrational signature of substances in the environment and you take it and inspire your own vitality to heal," Cox says. "So through ancient knowledge you have…this understanding there's an inner spirit form in our environment and that when you really understand that you use that knowledge for healing."

Cox interviews several people in Hózhóogo Iiná to get the connection across to viewers. Donald Denetdeal, one of the interviewees, is also the primary consultant for the project on the Navajo holistic perspective. Denetdeal is a retired professor of Navajo Studies from Diné College. In the documentary, he discusses the Navajo idea that an inner spirit existing within everything in nature is what's doing the healing, just as homeopathy recognizes an energy form in plants and other elements.

But Hózhóogo Iiná is about more than just the parallels between the two healing modalities, one formed many thousands of miles away and another here in the Southwest. The documentary intends to explore, in a practical way, the potential of the use of homeopathy on the Navajo Nation as well as to increase Indigenous peoples' interest in their own traditional healing.

"In this time of increasing health inequality and especially now, in quarantine, we have had to start thinking of utilizing the wisdom of our heritage when it comes to healing our communities," says project photographer and editor Dax Thomas, whose heritage is of Acoma and Laguna pueblos and who now lives and works in Laguna Pueblo.

"With homeopathy there is an inherent respect for nature and a holistic perspective that is certainly compatible with our traditional methods of healing. It could provide safe and effective solutions, especially in our rural areas where there are less options and a primary reliance on [Indian Health Service]. It supports self sufficiency—as we return to healing with nature around us—using
herbs, prayers."

Hidden Immunity from Covid in T Cells? (Copy)

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200716-the-people-with-hidden-protection-from-covid-19

By Zaria Gorvett19th July 2020

While the latest research suggests that antibodies against Covid-19 could be lost in just three months, a new hope has appeared on the horizon: the enigmatic T cell.

T

The clues have been mounting for a while. First, scientists discovered patients who had recovered from infection with Covid-19, but mysteriously didn’t have any antibodies against it. Next it emerged that this might be the case for a significant number of people. Then came the finding that many of those who do develop antibodies seem to lose them again after just a few months.

In short, though antibodies have proved invaluable for tracking the spread of the pandemic, they might not have the leading role in immunity that we once thought. If we are going to acquire long-term protection, it looks increasingly like it might have to come from somewhere else.  

But while the world has been preoccupied with antibodies, researchers have started to realise that there might be another form of immunity – one which, in some cases, has been lurking undetected in the body for years. An enigmatic type of white blood cell is gaining prominence. And though it hasn’t previously featured heavily in the public consciousness, it may well prove to be crucial in our fight against Covid-19. This could be the T cell’s big moment.

When researchers tested blood samples taken years before the pandemic started, they found T cells which were specifically tailored to detect proteins on the surface of Covid-19

T cells are a kind of immune cell, whose main purpose is to identify and kill invading pathogens or infected cells. It does this using proteins on its surface, which can bind to proteins on the surface of these imposters. Each T cell is highly specific – there are trillions of possible versions of these surface proteins, which can each recognise a different target. Because T cells can hang around in the blood for years after an infection, they also contribute to the immune system’s “long-term memory” and allow it to mount a faster and more effective response when it’s exposed to an old foe.  

Several studies have shown that people infected with Covid-19 tend to have T cells that can target the virus, regardless of whether they have experienced symptoms. So far, so normal. But scientists have also recently discovered that some people can test negative for antibodies against Covid-19 and positive for T cells that can identify the virus. This has led to suspicions that some level of immunity against the disease might be twice as common as was previously thought.

Most bizarrely of all, when researchers tested blood samples taken years before the pandemic started, they found T cells which were specifically tailored to detect proteins on the surface of Covid-19. This suggests that some people already had a pre-existing degree of resistance against the virus before it ever infected a human. And it appears to be surprisingly prevalent: 40-60% of unexposed individuals had these cells.

6 Month later Covid is still a mystery (Copy)

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01989-z

NEWS  03 JULY 2020

Six months of coronavirus: the mysteries scientists are still racing to solve

From immunity to the role of genetics, Nature looks at five pressing questions about COVID-19 that researchers are tackling.

Ewen Callaway,

Heidi LedfordIn late December 2019, reports emerged of a mysterious pneumonia in Wuhan, China, a city of 11 million people in the southeastern province of Hubei. The cause, Chinese scientists quickly determined, was a new coronavirus distantly related to the SARS virus that had emerged in China in 2003, before spreading globally and killing nearly 800 people.

Six months and more than ten million confirmed cases later, the COVID-19 pandemic has become the worst public-health crisis in a century. More than 500,000 people have died worldwide. It has also catalysed a research revolution, as scientists, doctors and other scholars have worked at breakneck speed to understand COVID-19 and the virus that causes it: SARS-CoV-2.

How deadly is the coronavirus? Scientists are close to an answer

They have learnt how the virus enters and hijacks cells, how some people fight it off and how it eventually kills others. They have identified drugs that benefit the sickest patients, and many more potential treatments are in the works. They have developed nearly 200 potential vaccines — the first of which could be proved effective by the end of the year.

But for every insight into COVID-19, more questions emerge and others linger. That is how science works. To mark six months since the world first learnt about the disease responsible for the pandemic, Nature runs through some of the key questions that researchers still don’t have answers to.

Why do people respond so differently?

One of the most striking aspects of COVID-19 is the stark differences in experiences of the disease. Some people never develop symptoms, whereas others, some apparently healthy, have severe or even fatal pneumonia. “The differences in the clinical outcome are dramatic,” says Kári Stefánsson, a geneticist and chief executive of DeCODE Genetics in Reykjavik, whose team is looking for human gene variants that might explain some of these differences.

The biggest mystery: what it will take to trace the coronavirus source

That search has been hampered by the relatively small number of cases in Iceland. But last month, an international team analysing the genomes of roughly 4,000 people from Italy and Spain turned up the first strong genetic links to severe COVID-191. People who developed respiratory failure were more likely to carry one of two particular gene variants than were people without the disease.

One variant lies in the region of the genome that determines ABO blood type. The other is near several genes, including one that encodes a protein that interacts with the receptor the virus uses to enter human cells, and two others that encode molecules linked to immune response against pathogens. The researchers are part of the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative, a global consortium of groups that are pooling data to validate findings and uncover further genetic links.

The variants identified so far seem to play a modest part in disease outcome. A team led by Jean-Laurent Casanova, an immunologist at the Rockefeller University in New York City, is looking for mutations that have a more substantial role.

To find them, his team is combing the full genomes of otherwise healthy people under 50 who have experienced severe cases of COVID-19, he says, such as “the guy who runs a marathon in October, and now, five months later, he’s in the ICU, intubated and ventilated”. Extreme susceptibility to other infections, including tuberculosis and Epstein–Barr virus, a usually harmless pathogen that sometimes causes severe illness, have been pinned down to mutations in single genes. Casanova suspects the same will be true for some cases of COVID-19.

What’s the nature of immunity and how long does it last?

Immunologists are working feverishly to determine what immunity to SARS-CoV-2 could look like, and how long it might last. Much of the effort has focused on ‘neutralizing antibodies’, which bind to viral proteins and directly prevent infection. Studies have found2 that levels of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 remain high for a few weeks after infection, but then typically begin to wane.

However, these antibodies might linger at high levels for longer in people who had particularly severe infections. “The more virus, the more antibodies, and the longer they will last,” says immunologist George Kassiotis of the Francis Crick Institute in London. Similar patterns have been seen with other viral infections, including SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). Most people who had SARS lost their neutralizing antibodies after the first few years. But those who had it really severely still had antibodies when re-tested 12 years later, says Kassiotis.

How do children spread the coronavirus? The science still isn’t clear

Researchers don’t yet know what level of neutralizing antibodies is needed to fight off reinfection by SARS-CoV-2, or at least to reduce COVID-19 symptoms in a second illness. And other antibodies might be important for immunity. Virologist Andrés Finzi of the University of Montreal in Canada, for example, plans to study the role of antibodies that bind to infected cells and mark them for execution by immune cells — a process called antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity — in responses to SARS-CoV-2.

Ultimately, a full picture of SARS-CoV-2 immunity is likely to extend beyond antibodies. Other immune cells called T cells are important for long-term immunity, and studies suggest that they are also being called to arms by SARS-CoV-23,4. “People are equating antibody to immunity, but the immune system is such a wonderful machine,” says Finzi. “It is so much more complex than just antibodies alone.”

Because there is not yet a clear, measurable marker in the body that correlates with long-term immunity, researchers must piece together the patchwork of immune responses and compare it with responses to infections with other viruses to estimate how durable protection might be. Studies5 of other coronaviruses suggest that ‘sterilizing immunity’, which prevents infection, might last for only a matter of months. But protective immunity, which can prevent or ease symptoms, could last longer than that, says Shane Crotty, a virologist at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology in California.

A volunteer receives an injection during the country's first human clinical for a potential vaccine against COVID-19 in Soweto.

A volunteer in Soweto, South Africa, receives an injection in a clinical trial for a potential COVID-19 vaccine.Credit: Felix Dlangamandla/Beeld/Gallo Images/Getty

Has the virus developed any worrying mutations?

All viruses mutate as they infect people, and SARS-CoV-2 is no exception. Molecular epidemiologists have used these mutations to trace the global spread of the virus. But scientists are also looking for changes that affect its properties, for instance by making some lineages more or less virulent or transmissible. “It is a new virus; if it did become more severe, that’s something you would want to know about,” says David Robertson, a computational biologist at the University of Glasgow, UK, whose team is cataloguing SARS-CoV-2 mutations. Such mutations also have the potential to lessen the effectiveness of vaccines, by altering the ability of antibodies and T cells to recognize the pathogen.

But most mutations will have no impact, and picking out the worrying ones is challenging. Versions of the coronavirus identified at the start of outbreaks in hotspots such as Lombardy in Italy or in Madrid, for instance, might look as if they are deadlier than those found at later stages or in other locations. But such associations are probably spurious, says William Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts: health officials are more likely to identify severe cases in early, uncontrolled stages of an outbreak. Broad spread of certain mutations could also be due to ‘founder effects’, in which lineages that arise early in transmission centres such as Wuhan or northern Italy happen to have a mutation that is passed on when they seed outbreaks elsewhere.

Coronavirus vaccine trials have delivered their first results — but their promise is still unclear

Researchers are debating whether the widespread prevalence of one mutation in the virus’s spike protein is the product of a founder effect — or an example of a consequential change to the virus’s biology. The mutation seems to have first emerged around February in Europe, where most circulating viruses now carry it, and it is now found in every region of the world. A spate of studies have suggested that this mutation makes the SARS-CoV-2 virus more infectious to cultured cells, but it is not clear how this property translates to infections in humans.

How well will a vaccine work?

An effective vaccine might be the only way out of the pandemic. There are currently roughly 200 in development worldwide, with around a 20 in clinical trials. The first large-scale efficacy trials to find out whether any vaccines work are set to begin in the next few months. These studies will compare rates of COVID-19 infection between people who get a vaccine and those who receive a placebo.

But there are already clues in data from animal studies and early-stage human trials, mainly testing safety. Multiple teams have conducted ‘challenge trials’ in which animals given a candidate vaccine are intentionally exposed to SARS-CoV-2 to see whether the jab can prevent infection. Studies in macaque monkeys suggest that vaccines might do a good job at preventing lung infection and resulting pneumonia, but not at blocking infection elsewhere in the body, such as the nose. Monkeys that received a vaccine developed by the University of Oxford, UK, and were then exposed to the virus had levels of viral genetic material in their noses comparable to levels in unvaccinated animals7. Results such as this raise the possibility of a COVID-19 vaccine that prevents severe disease — but not spread of the virus.

Data in humans, although scant, suggest that COVID-19 vaccines prompt our bodies to make potent neutralizing antibodies that can block the virus from infecting cells. What isn’t yet clear is whether levels of these antibodies are high enough to stop new infections, or how long these molecules persist in the body.

With government and industry pumping billions into vaccine development, testing and manufacturing, a vaccine could be available in record time, say scientists — it just might not be completely effective. “We might have vaccines in the clinic that are useful in people within 12 or 18 months,” Dave O’Connor, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, told Nature in May. “But we’re going to need to improve on them.”

A Horseshoe bat hangs from a net inside an abandoned Israeli army outpost next to the Jordan River in the occupied West Bank.

Horseshoe bats are a primary suspect in the search for the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.Credit: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty

What is the origin of the virus?

Most researchers agree that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus probably originated in bats, specifically horseshoe bats. This group hosts two coronaviruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2. One, named RATG13, was found8 in intermediate horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus affinis) in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan in 2013. Its genome is 96% identical to that of SARS-CoV-2. The next-closest match is RmYN02, a coronavirus found in Malayan horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus malayanus), which shares 93% of its genetic sequence with SARS-CoV-29.

A comprehensive analysis10 of more than 1,200 coronaviruses sampled from bats in China also points to horseshoe bats in Yunnan as the probable origin of the new coronavirus. But the study doesn’t exclude the possibility that the virus came from horseshoe bats in neighbouring countries, including Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.

The 4% difference between the genomes of RATG13 and SARS-CoV-2 represents decades of evolution. Researchers say this suggests that the virus might have passed through an intermediate host before spreading to people, in the same way that the virus that causes SARS is thought to have passed from horseshoe bats to civets before reaching people. A few candidates for this animal host were put forward early in the outbreak, with several groups homing in on pangolins12.

How does COVID-19 kill? Uncertainty is hampering doctors’ ability to choose treatments

Researchers isolated coronaviruses from Malayan pangolins (Manis javanica) confiscated during anti-smuggling operations in southern China11,12. These viruses share up to 92% of their genomes with the new coronavirus. The studies confirm that pangolins can host coronaviruses that share a common ancestor with SARS-CoV-2, but they do not prove that the virus jumped from pangolins to people.

To unequivocally trace the virus’s journey to people, scientists would need to find an animal that hosts a version more than 99% similar to SARS-CoV-2 — a prospect complicated by the fact that the virus has spread so widely among people, who have also passed it to other animals, such as cats, dogs and farmed mink.

Zhang Zhigang, an evolutionary microbiologist at Yunnan University in Kunming, says efforts by research groups in China to isolate the virus from livestock and wildlife, including civets, have turned up bare. Groups in southeast Asia are also searching for the coronavirus in tissue samples from bats, pangolins and civets.

Nature 583, 178-179 (2020)

doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01989-z

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Smriti Mallapaty

Dr. Bhatia on Covid 19 symptoms (Copy)

Dr. Bhatia recommends Bryonia alba 6CH or 30CH, as a prophylactic. It can be given (only to affected population) once a day, till days become warmer and the epidemic subsides (hopefully).

Homeopathy and Unani effective in prevention of novel coronavirus infections: AYUSH ministry (Copy)

Homeopathy and Unani effective in prevention of novel coronavirus infections: AYUSH ministry

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/homeopathy-and-unani-effective-in-prevention-of-novel-coronavirus-infections-ayush-ministry/articleshow/73741342.cms?from=mdr

"The Ministry of AYUSH is issuing the advisory as preventive measure and not claiming to be a treatment advice for the nCoV infection. The Research Councils under Ministry of AYUSH are involved in various public health activities and provide lifestyle advocacies time to time for the general public," the ministry said in a statement.

New Delhi: The AYUSH Ministry on Wednesday issued an advisory and recommended that homeopathic and unani medicine could be effective in the prevention of novel coronavirus (nCoV) infections which claimed over 100 lives in China.

It recommended that homoeopathic medicine Arsenicum album 30 could be taken empty stomach daily for three days as a preventive medicine against the infection.

It also mentioned some Ayurvedic practices which can help recess the symptoms of respiratory tract in possible coronavirus infected cases.

"The Ministry of AYUSH is issuing the advisory as preventive measure and not claiming to be a treatment advice for the nCoV infection. The Research Councils under Ministry of AYUSH are involved in various public health activities and provide lifestyle advocacies time to time for the general public," the ministry said in a statement.

On Tuesday, the scientific advisory board of the Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH), under the Ministry of AYUSH, discussed ways to prevent the nCoV infection through homoeopathy.

The dose should be repeated after one month in case the nCoV infection prevails in the community, the advisory said, adding that the same has also been advised for prevention of influenza-like illness.

The advisory suggests general hygienic measures for prevention of air-borne infections such as washing hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, avoiding touching eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands, and avoiding close contact with people who are sick.

The ministry has advised covering face while coughing or sneezing and preferably using an N95 mask while travelling or working in public places to avoid droplet transmissions.

"If you suspect Corona Viral infection, wear a mask and contact your nearest hospital immediately," the advisory said.

It has emerged from a seafood and animal market in Wuhan city and is suspected to have spread as far as the United States.

In India, many people are under observation in hospitals for suspected coronavirus infection, including in Maharashtra, Goa, Odisha and the national capital. People returning to the country after visiting China are being regularly screened for the deadly virus at airports across the country.

It also recommended prophylactic measures/immunomodulatory drugs as per Ayurvedic practices and taking measures to strengthen the immune system through a healthy diet and lifestyle practices.

Novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from common cold to acute respiratory syndromes. The virus has killed 132 people and affected at least 6,000 in China and is a novel strain not seen before.

According to the World Health Organisation, the common symptoms of the novel coronavirus strain include respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. PLB ABH ABH

Homeopathy Suggested For COVID-19 Prevention (Copy)

Daily Guide Network

10/03/2020

© Provided by Daily Guide Network

Dr. Michael Kyeremateng

Homeopathic medicine specialist at the C4C Homeopathic Hospital, Dr. Michael Kyeremateng, has suggested the use of homeopathy medicine as a means of preventing Coronavirus (COVID-19).

According to Dr. Kyeremateng, countries like India are using this alternative form of medicine as a preventive tool against the deadly COVID-19.

Dr. Kyeremanteng, who happens to be a product of Indian alternative medicine education, believes that the use of homeopathy medicine by the Government of Ghana will go a long way to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

He said the effectiveness of homeopathic preparations was disputed within medical science but India, which was noted as the hub of Homeopathy, had proven to the world how powerful homeopathic treatments were.

The Indian government’s Ministry of AYUSH, which promotes alternative medicine systems in the country, released a health advisory on January 29 that advocated the use of homeopathy and traditional remedies, such as Indian systems of medicine, to ward off infections of the newly circulating novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

This includes the use of a homeopathic preparation called Arsenicum album 30C and two drops of sesame oil in each nostril each morning for prevention and Unani medicines (treatments based on the teachings of Hippocrates and Galen) to mitigate symptoms of COVID-19 infection.

India’s government has promoted pseudoscientific homeopathic practices in its effort to prevent the spread of the mysterious new COVID-19, which has killed over 100 people.

The step taken by the Indian government, according to Dr. Kyeremanteng, a graduate of the College of Practical Homeopathy with Licentiate in Homeopathic Medicine from London in the United Kingdom, was worth emulating and the best way to prevent COVID-19 from spreading.

The 2019-nCoV has killed more than 3500 people and infected over 105,000 according to reports – the majority in mainland China.

India is not currently among the countries dealing with cases of the virus, dubbed 2019-nCoVA, which includes the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia and South Korea.

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/homeopathy-susggested-for-covid-19-prevention/ar-BB10ZwL1

Herd immunity, homeopathy - not lockdown - best to fight coronavirus: Rajiv Bajaj (Copy)

Herd immunity, homeopathy - not lockdown - best to fight coronavirus: Rajiv Bajaj

Bajaj Auto MD Rajiv Bajaj said putting the country under lockdown is hindering herd immunity, which is the only protection against coronavirus till a vaccine is developed.

Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director of Bajaj Auto, suggested that homeopathy can be a ray of hope in increasing immunity to help people overcome the novel coronavirus pandemic. Talking to India Today, Bajaj expressed his concerned over rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths, adding that developing herd immunity is one of the ways to fight the contagion.

Bajaj said although he is not an epidemiologist but to his knowledge herd immunity can be developed by either administering vaccines, or developing immunity naturally. Since a vaccine is at least one year in future, Bajaj said the population will have to develop resistance against coronavirus in a natural way. Locking down everybody and everything completely is not the way to develop resistance, as there is no chance of developing herd immunity, he implied.

Bajaj also claimed that no country in the world could arrest a flu virus and this is why 600,000 people die every year due to common flu. If the common flu virus could not be arrested even after so many decades of research, then how can COVID-19 be contained by lock down, he said, further adding that lock down is not the solution to this crisis.

Bajaj further said that homeopathy has been documented to be quite effective in pandemics similar to coronavirus. Be it the 1918 Spanish Flu or the recent Cuban epidemic, the doctors who treated their patients with homeopathy lost a fraction of patients as compared to those who were treated with allopathic medicine, he said.

Rajiv Bajaj had put his claims of homeopathy's immunity boosting properties to test 10 years ago during the Swine Flu menace. His company had administered a homeopathy medicine to all of its employees and others. According to Bajaj, not one person out of the 50,000, who were given the homeopathic medicine, contracted swine flu, even though Pune was the epicentre of the epidemic in India.

Further elaborating his stand, Bajaj said the good thing is that India has a separate ministry called Aayush, which is promoting homeopathy like other therapies, showing that it is a form of medicine and not poison or toxin. Bajaj argued that even the strongest critics also accept that homeopathy will do no harm as it does not have any side effects.

Talking about positive case studies, Bajaj said that Dr Rajan Sankaran from Mumbai in the last 6 weeks got access to many COVID-19 patients in countries like Iran, Nepal, Romania, Bolivia, Italy, France and Netherlands and treated them successfully. This gives hope that Camphor 1M can be effective in treating COVID-19 patients as well as increasing immunity in others who might get infected, says Bajaj.

As a part of corporate social responsibility, Bajaj Auto has set up a homeopathy centre in Pune called Prana, which has distributed 67,000 vials of Camphor 1M. Each vial is enough for family of 4-5 people. Not only has Bajaj distributed this medicine among his employees and close friends, but police forces in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad police have also accepted and administered their staff with this purported remedial homeopathy medicine. There are around 15,000 police personnel in Pune who are taking this medicine, says Bajaj. Police Commissioner of Pune city told India Today that he has allowed police officials to take this medicine, and surprisingly no police personnel in his jurisdiction has been affected with coronavirus.

https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/trends/herd-immunity-homoepathy-not-lockdown-best-to-fight-coronavirus-rajiv-bajaj/story/400768.html

The Pandemic Tests Germany's Love Affair With Homeopathy (Copy)

BERLIN — As coronavirus continues to spread and doctors across the world scramble for an effective treatment, here in Germany we have some wonderful (some would say unbelievable news): The cure has been found.

The key, according to Germany's Hahnemann Society, is homeopathic medicine. "It has been shown that even the first seven days of the illness can be effectively treated," the organization's website announces triumphantly.

And the Hahnemann Society is not alone in vaunting the healing powers of homeopathy for COVID-19. Prominent Swiss doctor Jens Wurster claims to have used homeopathy to achieve "impressive treatment outcomes" for 70 patients, "both those with mild symptoms and severe cases."

The Locarno-based doctor has split opinion in German medicine. Before moving into COVID-19 treatment, he persuaded cancer patients to switch to homeopathic globules, earning himself a reputation among many as "an absolute charlatan," as oncology professor Jutta Hübner from Jena University Hospital succinctly puts it.

But Michaela Geiger, a doctor of integrated medicine and chair of the German Central Association of Homeopathic Physicians (GCAHP), sees things differently. "Just as mainstream medicine is still debating the best treatment, so is homeopathy," she says. Geiger sees Wurster's reports of healing through homeopathy "as a contribution to this ongoing exchange of experiences."

Homeopathy is the most popular alternative therapy in Germany. There are around 7,000 registered doctors in private practice who specialize in it, and half of Germans say that they have tried at least one homeopathic treatment, according to a survey by a homeopathic medicine manufacturer. Now the coronavirus pandemic has opened up a new, lucrative and almost boundless market.

Critics abound

In the early days of the virus, homeopaths in Germany held back. And at first, the GCHAP distanced itself from members who jumped on the opportunity to claim their globules had antiviral properties.

Since then, however, there has clearly been a change of heart. The Association is now calling for its members to document their homeopathic treatment of corona patients: "Against the current background of rising COVID-19 infections, with this project we can find out how homeopathy can contribute to treating COVID-19."

It wasn't long before scorn began pouring in from abroad. "German homeopaths launch a placebo offensive against corona," commented the Austrian newspaper Der Standard. "Scientists are tirelessly working to develop vaccines and treatments, and we hear again and again the sobering news that it will be a long wait before we have a vaccine. Meanwhile, German homeopaths are making reckless promises."

In Austria, homeopathy is generally regarded with suspicion, if not outright scorn. The Medical University of Vienna distanced itself from "charlatanism" and removed homeopathy from the syllabus.

In other countries too, the tide has turned against homeopaths. The French Ministry of Health has ruled out any health benefits from homeopathy, while the Spanish government classes it as "pseudoscience" that must be combated. And the European Academy of Sciences makes it clear that homeopathic treatments are no more effective than placebos. In the United States, homeopathic remedies on sale must display a clear label saying that they have no proven health benefits.

A piece of licorice has more medicinal content.

And in Germany? "In my view, it is completely irresponsible for doctors to treat COVID-19 patients using homeopathic methods," says Karl Lauterbach, a health expert with the Social Democratic Party. "The consequences for some patients could be deadly. Health insurance should not cover it and doctors should be forbidden from prescribing it."

Andrew Ullmann, a health expert with the Free Democratic Party, has a similar take. Patients should have to pay the cost of "these so-called therapies" themselves, he says. "For severe cases of COVID-19, my only recommendation is to see a qualified doctor."

In other countries too, the tide has turned against homeopaths. — Photo: Tampa Bay Times/ZUMAPRESS

Even Green Party members are distancing themselves from homeopathy. It should only be used as a complementary treatment, says Maria Klein-Schmeink, the party's health spokesperson.

A natural affinity

And yet, the fact remains that amid the confusion and fear of the pandemic, more and more people are turning to homeopathy. According to a survey by the Forsa Institute for Social Research and Statistical Analysis, two thirds of Germans would support the use of homeopathic remedies in treating COVID-19. That is not representative of the rest of Europe, or the world.

"Most people confuse homeopathy with natural remedies or plant-based medicine. That's a misunderstanding, a result of false labeling, which is enabled in Germany because sugar pills can be labeled as medicine," says Christian Lübbers, an eye, nose and throat specialist and spokesperson for Information Network Homeopathy.

"Studies have shown that only 17% of people know what homeopathy really is. But it's so simple: homeopathy is not plant-based medicine. It is a placebo," he adds.

Christian Weymayr, spokesperson for the group Münsteraner Kreis, which takes a critical stance toward homeopathy, agrees. "A piece of licorice has more medicinal content than homeopathic globules," he says. "People don't realize that homeopathy is ineffective because most people with COVID-19 only have mild symptoms."

Kreis goes on to say that in a climate of fear, when there will be a long wait for a vaccine, there is a growing danger that people will believe in things that give them false comfort.

That may well be the case in Germany. Homeopathic remedies can only be bought in pharmacies and their packaging is labeled with information about risks and side effects. Many health insurance companies will pay for them. And doctors often present their additional qualifications in homeopathy as if they were of equal value to their training in emergency medicine or diabetes treatment.

Dubious claims

The practice of homeopathy is contentious, and its critics often voice their opposition with something akin to hatred. The same goes for backers of the practice. In his blog, German homeopathy lobbyist and PR advisor Christian J. Becker boasts about journalists who have been "hit by complaints to the German Press Council."

Becker relies on audacious claims about history to justify the use of homeopathic remedies in the treatment of coronavirus. He says that during the 19th-century cholera epidemic, 92% of sufferers could have been healed through homeopathy, and that during the Spanish Flu epidemic, only 1% of hospital patients treated with homeopathy died, while the figure for those who underwent conventional treatment was 30%.

Doctor and homeopath Wolfgang Springer follows a similar argument, claiming that the success of homeopathic treatments during the historical epidemics of cholera, yellow fever, scarlet fever and encephalitis has been well documented.

What they fail to mention — or perhaps don't realize — is that the apparent success of homeopathy during the cholera outbreak, when the father of homeopathy Samuel Hahnemann was active, was because it had one advantage: It protected weakened patients from the harmful treatments of the time.

Alternative medicine only seemed to be effective, in other words, because the standard treatment of bloodletting and laxatives finished off most patients. Hahnemann's treatment, in contrast, involved camphor and mineral water.

https://worldcrunch.com/coronavirus/the-pandemic-tests-germany39s-love-affair-with-homeopathy

Flu pandemics: homeopathic prophylaxis and definition of the epidemic genius (Copy)

Int J High Dilution Res 2009; 8(28): 100-109

Original Article

Flu pandemics: homeopathic prophylaxis and definition of the epidemic genius

Renan Marino

Faculty of Medicine of São José do Rio Preto, FAMERP, São Paulo, Brazil

ABSTRACT

Recent studies on viral genetics establish swine-H1N1 – responsible for the ongoing pandemics – as a remainder or continuation of the agent causing the flu epidemics of 1918. This study aimed at analyzing whether this common etiology also result in significant correlations of clinical manifestations. To do so, data were collected to compare the clinical evolution of cases in the 1918 and 2009 epidemics. This historical revision was the ground for evaluating the response to treatment including homeopathy in the former epidemics. It is discussed the convenience of including homeopathic prophylaxis grounded on the diagnosis of the epidemic genius among public health actions.

Keywords: Homeopathy; Collective health; Epidemics; Influenza A – H1N1. Introduction

The Italian term Influenza was first used in 1743 to indicate the probable etiology (“Influenza del freddo”: Influence of coldness) of a respiratory illness that fast affected a large number of people during the winter. Grippe (French), Greifen (German), Flu (English) and Cripu (Russian) are used to designate this universal, severe pandemic infectious disease that bursts out after irregular and relatively long periods of time (20-40 years or more). [1]

Recent data indicate that ongoing Hog Flu actually had its epicenter in the United States in 1918 from where it spread to Europe to become known as Morbus ibericus or Spanish Flu. Its viral etiology could only be established in 1933, when Smith, Andrews and Laidlaw were able to verify Koch’s postulates reproducing the picture of flu in ferrets and white mice after nasal instillation of clinical materials of human origin. [2]

The new subtype of Influenza virus A-H1N1 was classified by the CDC (Center for Disease Control) as A/California/04/2009, a representative of a triple rearrangement of human, aviary and swine genes. [3] Genetic analysis of isolated California virus showing the direct relationship between swine variant H1N1 and the 1918 epidemics certainly results in clinical developments and implications that are discussed below. [4]

Characteristic symptoms of Influenza A-H1N1 then and now: piecing the puzzle together

Retrospective studies show that pandemic cycles present high mortality in their remission or second wave, which appears 6 months – 1 year after the occurrence of the initial, and usually moderated, cases [5]. Regarding the clinical manifestations observed during the Spanish Flu, our reference are the archives researched by Coutinho [1], which include the detailed description of signs and symptoms that he classified as described in Table 1.

100

The search for common points can be achieved from the comparison of the clinical characteristics of the former epidemics as described above and the clinical manifestations of the ongoing epidemics as described in June 2009. To do so, data supplied by SINAN (Information System of Disease Notification) of the Brazilian Ministry of Health (MS) were analyzed, using as sample 378 confirmed cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome due to Influenza A-H1N1 occurring until the epidemiologic week 29/2009. [6] As relevant, we highlighted sudden fever of 39oC, with dry and continual cough leading to intense dyspnea and facial cyanosis, chills, general muscle and joint pain, besides contuse headache, extreme prostration fast progressing into cardiovascular failure with hypotension and shock.

Table 1: Symptoms of Spanish Flu [1]

Int J High Dilution Res 2009; 8(28): 100-109

Stage/ Organs or systems affected

Synoptic description of signs and symptoms of human Influenza, 1918

Prodrome

Lassitude, the body feels as after prolonged and exhausting exertion, with physical and mental depression, sudden high fever and intense headache. Joints and muscular pain, mainly in the calves and lumbar area, sweating and morbiliform rash in 30% of cases.

Eyes and rhinopharynx

Frequent sneezing with nasal obstruction and discharge, dryness and itch in the throat with dry, whooping, frequent and painful cough. Slight catarrhal conjunctivitis, pale face and cyanosis around the mouth; frequent epistaxis.

Respiratory and thorax

Lung congestion especially in the base, bilateral, with dyspnea due to intense bronchospasm, intense whooping-like cough with hemoptysis.

Gastrointestinal

Hiccups, nausea and incoercible vomiting, sialorrhea, abdominal pain around the navel with mucous/bloody diarrhea.

Neurological

Headache, vertigo, neuralgia; modification of the level of consciousness in different degrees, mental confusion, torpor, somnolence.

In order to manage data arising from different sources and to better understand the global dimension of the clinical parameters of the pandemics, we included the report of 18 Mexican cases from which 7 died (39%), where there was fever, cough and dyspnea in 100% of cases, sudden onset (72%), hemoptysis (33%), hypotension and hypoventilation (more than 50%), stressing furthermore the occurrence of diarrhea only in children (22%). Lymphocytopenia with less than 1,000 cells (61%), increase of CPK (creatine phosphokinase) (72%) and LDH (lactate dehydrogenase) (100%) were the main laboratory parameters verified. [7]

We also sought to define the 5 main risk factors among the Brazilian population, on the grounds of the 222 patients monitored until epidemiologic week 28/2009/MS/SINAN [8]: 1) pregnancy – representing the group with higher mortality risk associated with hemorrhagic phenomena, placental abruption, hypoventilation and shock; 2) lung disease; 3) arterial hypertension; 4) heart disease; 5) immune depression.

The clinical comparison of Spanish Flu (1918), Mexico (2009) and Brazil (2009) makes evident the strict correlation of symptoms among them, a fact of high relevance as it also allows making a retrospective evaluation of the outcomes of homeopathic treatment between 1918 and 1920 which can supply reliable criteria to face the ongoing pandemics.

Foundations of homeopathic prophylaxis

Preventive use of homeopathy was first applied in 1801 during an epidemics of scarlet fever in Königslütter, Germany, when Samuel Hahnemann – the founder of homeopathy – prescribed a single dose of Belladona, as the remedy of the epidemic genius to susceptible children in the town with 100% success [9]. Homeopathic

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prophylaxis is grounded on the ability of homeopathic remedies to avoid or attenuate manifestations of disease when chosen according to the principle of similarity. According to authors such as Trousseau and Tetau it is also grounded on the notion of “terrain” and inheritance that would include the set of individual factors related to the constitution, predisposition and refractoriness to disease and metabolism[10]. Eizayaga sustains that homeopathic remedies increase individual unspecific resistance to infections, whereas nosodes increase specific immunity regarding definite etiologic agents[11]. Ullman attributes the prestige of homeopathy in Europe and the United States in the 19th century to its success in the treatment of epidemics. [12]

Antecedents of the use of homeopathy in the pandemics Influenza A-H1N1 (1918)

Pandemics continued to cause high mortality in the 20th century: the Spanish Flu claimed 20-40 million victims, the Asiatic Flu – H2N2 (1957), 1 million and the Hong Kong Flu – H3N2 (1968), 700 thousand. [13]

In this study, we restricted historical revision of the use of homeopathy in epidemics to pandemics of human Influenza. As sources, we employed Winston’s major study on the use of homeopathy in 1918 epidemics [14], while establishing as criteria the selection of rigorously verified data - through historic and scientific documents and ratified by official sources – we focused on Dewey’s paper (cited in Winston) [15], published in 1921 in the Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy with the title “Homeopathy in Influenza: A Chorus of Fifty in Harmony”.

At that time, Dewey was professor of materia medica and therapeutics at Michigan University, which acquainted him with academic standards, so that he recorded with utmost care data highly significant for our research as exhibited in Table 2.

Table 2: Data mentioned by Dewey

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Cases of human Influenza treated with homeopathy in 1918

Source

Place

Total number of patients

Mortality rate

Pearson, W. A.

Philadelphia

26.795

1,05%

30 doctors from several cities

Connecticut

6.602

1%

Wieland, F.

Chicago

8.000

0,01%

Sappington, E. F. (Homeopathic Medical Society)

District of Columbia (Washington)

50.000

0,01%

McCann, T.A.

Dayton, Ohio

1.000

0%

Outcomes of patients treated with homeopathy are remarkable, especially when compared with those of patients treated exclusively with conventional remedies, as e.g. a group of 24,000 patients in Ohio, where mortality was 28.2%. It is particularly noteworthy the comment of F. Wieland, from Chicago, on the use of Gelsemium during the epidemics, which according to him “was virtually the only remedy prescribed” [16].

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Hughes’ contribution: a map leading to the “eye of the hurricane”, or how to actually find the epidemic genius

Although to find the epidemic genius repertory analysis of the most remarkable, rare, strange and peculiar symptoms present in most cases during an epidemics may have some success, it is needed to resist the seduction of simple arithmetic additions, as this perhaps is the chief reason of mistakes in the diagnosis of the epidemic genius.

Richard Hughes, a leading representative of 19th century homeopathy believed that the selection of a remedy ought not to be grounded only on subjective symptoms, but rather on the characteristic nucleus of the symptomatic picture that was mandatorily expressed in the pathological effects experimentally verified in human beings and animals [17]. By the same token, he sustained that together with the principle of similarity, also pathology ought to be taken into account. For this reason, between 1884 and 1890, with the collaboration of Dake, he subjected the homeopathic materia medica to revision and depuration, which resulted in his 4-volume A Cyclopaedia of Drug Pathogenesy. Besides excluding purely clinic symptoms he emphasized provings conducted with low dilutions, i.e. below 6cH in order to obtain highly reliable data [17].

“Hughes’ filter” – a tool seeking to ensure that the selected remedy is necessary and sufficient to pharmacologically minimize the physiopathology of an illness sought to prevent or heal – is extremely useful when candidates for epidemic genus are many, as in the case of the ongoing flu epidemics, were possible remedies include Aconitum napellus, Bryonia alba, Eupatorium perfoliatum, Influenzinum, Phosphorus and Rhus toxicodendron among others besides Ipecacuanha. Application of “Hughes’ Filter” results in the peremptory indication of Ipecacuanha, on the grounds of the unmistakable specificity of its pattern of medicinal dynamics as it is shown below.

Grounds for the diagnosis of Ipecacuanha as epidemic genius in the ongoing Influenza A-H1N1 pandemics

Data on Ipecacuanaha agree among the different sources of the homeopathic materia medica beginning from Hahnemann’s initial Fragmenta de viribus medicamentorum... published in 1805 [18]. Phatak’s materia medica was selected as an example to deepen the study of the general action of this remedy, which includes: continual nausea, hemorrhages and frightening respiratory disturbs always accompanying most symptoms, such as bleeding gastrointestinal disorders; severe prostration with alteration of the level of consciousness; seizures and tetanus-like spasms complete the picture of symptoms. [19] It must be highlighted that aggravation occurs by both cold and heat, whereas this extraordinary hypersensitiveness to extreme modalities of temperature [20], although uncommon, has a direct relationship to the persistence of cases of Influenza A-H1N1, even in the lack of low temperatures, which leads us to conclude that these are instances not only of “Influenza del freddo” but also of “Influenza del caldo”, manifesting a recently acquired ability of the present time mutant virus.

Regarding the high mortality rate among pregnant women, Phatak highlights profuse hemorrhages gushing out, with nausea, tachypnea, constant abdominal pain in the hypogastrium, stitches from the navel to the uterus, placenta previa and uterine prolapse.

The objective sequence of symptoms composing the physiopathologic and pathogenetic picture of Ipecacuanha must be seen as a dynamic picture, comprehending the extension of symptoms such as intense headache from the nape to the root of the tongue, with sensation as from a wound, as if the head had been beaten by blows, with nausea and cold sweating on the face, constriction of the chest and the larynx, with incessant, exhausting and violent cough at each breath, which makes the patient become stiff and cyanotic on the face,

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with uncontrollable hemoptysis, extenuated and almost unconscious, febrile and often evolving to bronchopneumonia, shock and death [19].

For reasons we ignore, Ipecacuanha is not listed anymore among the best remembered remedies by homeopaths. However, it was included in the first list of 24 polycrest remedies made by Hahnemann, i.e. remedies “which have many indications” [10].

The contribution of experimentation of Ipecacuanha in animals

Uraoga, ou Cephaelis ipecacuanha Swartz (Figure 1) is a plant native to center-west Brazil; a small shrub of 20-40 cm height, its chemical composition includes catechols (ipecacuanic acid), nitrogen heterosides, glycoproteins with allergenic properties and mainly about 3% isoquinoline alkaloids, among which emetine (60-75%). Its active principles are mainly concentrated in the dried root, which is the part used in the preparation of the remedy [21].

Figure 1: Uragoga Ipecacuanha [22]

Records of experimentation of Ipecacuanha in animals (frogs and rabbits) mainly express disorders attributed to emetine, such as hemorrhage, depression of the myocardium, pulmonary congestion, pneumonia and vomiting, among others. [23] (Figure 2)

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Figure 2: Records of experimentation of Ipecacuanha in animal [23]. 105

Use of remedies synergically associated in epidemics constitutes an interesting resource and besides acknowledged by experienced practitioners, it is justified in order to widen the scope of action resulting in higher effectiveness [10]. Therefore, in the current circumstance, it seems pertinent to add to Ipecacuanha – selected as epidemic genius – a second remedy arising from the application of the criterion of etiopathogenic similarity, viz. nosode Influenzinum – in fact nosode of H1N1 would be better indicated. Despite it is prepared from antigenic variant H2N2 (Asiatic Flu, 1958), it is still indicated according to Kent’s remark in Lection XXIX: “prophylaxis requires a lesser degree of similarity than the one needed to heal” [24].

Gelsemium sempervirens can also be added, as a complementary of Ipecacuanha [25] in order to strengthen the effect of the prescription during the prodrome, increasing in this way the prophylactic value of the complex.

Moreover, in a paper presented to the I Panamerican Congress of Homeopathy in 1977 dealing with “Prophylaxis of infectious diseases in the first months of life with homeopathic nosodes”, Castro mentioned that during the 1918 flu epidemics, Gelsemium was the epidemic genius, whereas during the 1957 epidemics, Influenzinum prepared by Nelson Laboratory in London was prescribed with success [26].

Table 3 describes more details of the abovementioned remedies.

Table 3: Basic data of the remedies included in the complex [27]

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Validity of the use of homeopathic complexes in epidemics

Influenzinum (nosode)

Gelsemium sempervirens

Ipecacuanha

Source:

Flu vaccination prepared by Pasteur Institute, consisting in a mixtre of 3 parts of culture of Asian virus A- Singapour I-1957 and 1 part of culture of European virus APR-8

Source:

Fresh rhizome.

Original habitat:

North America Famíly: Loganiaceae

Vulgar names: Yellow Jessamine, Evening Trumpetflower

Source:

Dry root collected before blossoming. Original habitat: Brazil
Famíly: Rubiaceae

Scientific name: Cephaelis ipecacuanha Swartz

Pathogenetic trial [33]

Pathogenetic trial [34]

Pathogentic trial [35]

Regarding indications found in homeopathic repertories related to the use of Influenzinum, Gelsemium sempervirens and Ipecacuanha in Influenza, we found mentions in Boericke [28] and Farias Dias [29].

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Prejudice or ignorance are not valid reasons to rule out homeopathic prophylaxis as an adjuvant tool in the fight against resurgent epidemics but conversely, rejection implies in dismissing logic, evidence and scientific neutrality itself.

The scope and effectiveness of application of homeopathy in collective health has been strongly hinted at, more recently in the control of dengue in Macaé, Rio de Janeiro and São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Brazil [32].

The Brazilian health system is in state of alert facing the impact of the flu pandemics; to approach successfully this crisis it is legitimate to include the homeopathic model in the strategy adopted by the Ministry of Health.

In public health, when a homeopathic remedy is preventively prescribed in single doses, the choice of the dilution is a significant technical factor, strictly dependent on the projected repetition of the medicinal stimulus. In the current condition, for the effect of the stimulus to last at least 3 months, the most indicated dilution is 12cH.

References:

[1] Coutinho E. Tratado de Clínica das Doenças Infectuosas e Parasitárias. Rio de Janeiro: Livraria Pimenta de Mello & C; 1939.

[2] Bier O. Bacteriologia e Imunologia. 18th ed. São Paulo: Edições Melhoramentos; 1977.

[3] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Swine-origin influenza A-H1N1 virus infections in a school - New York City. MMWR. 2009 Apr; 58 (Dispatch): 1-3.

[4] Mossad SB. The resurgence of swine-origin influenza A (H1N1). Cleve Clin J Med. 2009; 76(6): 337-343. [5] Jordan EO. Epidemic influenza: A survey. Chicago: American Medical Association; 1927.

[6] Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde. Informe Epidemiológico: Influenza A (H1N1). 2nd ed. [cited 2009 jul]. Available from: www.portal.saude.gov.br/portal/arquivos/pdf/informe_influenza_a_h1n1_31_07_2009.pdf.

[7] Padilla RP, Zamboni DR, Leon SP, Hernandez M, Falconi FQ, Bautista E, Venegas AR, Serrano JR, Ormsby CE, Corrales A, Higuera A, Mondragon E, Villalobos JAC. Pneumonia and Respiratory Failure from Swine-Origin Influenza A (H1N1) in Mexico. N Engl J Med. 2009; 361(7): 680-689

[8] Boletim Eletrônico Epidemiológico. Situação epidemiológica da nova influenza A (H1N1) no Brasil, Influenza – Edição Especial. 2009 Jul 23; Ano 09: no 02. Available from: www.portal.saude.gov.br/portal/arquivos/pdf/boletim_epidemiologico_influenza_23_072009.pdf

[9] Hahnemann S. Organon da arte de curar. 6th ed. Ribeirão Preto: Museu de Homeopatia Abrahão Brickmann; 1996.

[10] Kossak-Romanach A. Homeopatia em 1000 conceitos. São Paulo: Elcid; 1984.

[11] Eizayaga FX. Tratado de Medicina Homeopática. 3th ed. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Marecel; 1992.

[12] Ullman D. Homeopatia: medicina para o século XXI. São Paulo: Cultrix; 1988.

[13] Zimmer SM, Burke DS. Historical Perspective - Emergence of Influenza A (H1N1) Viruses. N Engl J Med. 2009 jul 16; 361(3): 279-285.

[14] Winston J. The Faces of Homeopathy: An Illustrated History of the First 200 Years. Tawa: Great Awk Publishing; 1998.

[15] Dewey WA. Homeopathy in Influenza: A Chorus of Fifty in Harmony. Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy. 1921; 13: 1028-1043

[16] Grimes M. Important for Swine Flu Epidemic: Homeopathy Successfully Treated Flu Epidemic of 1918 [homepage]. 2009-[publish in 2009 Apr 28, cited 2009 Sep 21]. Available from: www.naturalnews.com/z026148_homeopathy_epidemic_flu_epidemic.html.

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[17] Campbell A. As duas faces da homeopatia. Rio de Janeiro: Matéria Médica; 1991.

[18] Galhardo JER. Iniciação Homeopática. Rio de Janeiro: Typ E Sondermann; 1936.

[19] Phatak SR. Matéria Médica de Medicinas Homeopáticas. New Delhi: B Jain Publishers; 1994.

[20] Duprat H. A Teoria e a Técnica da Homeopatia. Rio de Janeiro: Gráfica Olímpica Editora Ltda; 1974.

[21] Guermonprez M, Pinkas M, Torck M. Matière médicale homeopathique. Paris: Doin; 1985.

[22] Schultz A R. Introdução ao Estudo da Botânica Sistemática. 2nd ed. Porto Alegre: Livraria do Globo; 1943.

[23] Hughes R, Dake JP. Cyclopaedia of drug pathogenesy. Vol III. London/New York: British Homeopathic Society/Boericke & Tafel; 1888.

[24] Kent JT. Filosofia Homeopática - Trad de Ruth Kelson. São Paulo: Robe Editorial; 1996.

[25] Cairo N. Guia de Medicina Homeopática. 21th ed. São Paulo: Livraria Teixeira; 1984.

[26] Castro D. Homeopatia e profilaxia. São Paulo: Cultrix; 1988.

[27] Soares AAD. Dicionário de Medicamentos Homeopáticos. São Paulo: Livraria Santos Editora; 2000.

[28] Boericke W. Repertório Homeopático do Dr. Boericke. 4th ed em Português. Rio de Janeiro: Copyright Benjamim B Fraenkel; 1991.

[29] Dias AF. Repertório Homeopático Essencial. Rio de Janeiro: Cultura Médica; 2001.

[30] IPCC, 2007: Summary for Policymakers. In: Parry ML, Canziani OF, Palutikof JP, van der Linden PJ, Hanson CE, editors. Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Camvridge: Cambridge University Press. 2007. 7-22.

[31] Janeway Jr, Charles A. Imunobiologia: o sistema imunológico na saúde e na doença. 2nd ed. Porto Alegre: Artes Médicas; 1997.

[32] Nunes LAS. Contribution of homeopathy to the control of an outbreak of dengue in Macaé, Rio de Janeiro. Int J High Dilution Res [online]. 2008 [cited 2009 Sep 22]; 7(25): 186-192. Available from: http://www.feg.unesp.br/~ojs/index.php/ijhdr/article/view/315/374.

[33] Cartier F. Traité complet de thérapeutique homéopathique. Paris: Baillière et fils; 1929. [34] Douglas JS. West Journal of Homeopathy, 1: 1, 1853.

[35] Hahnemann CFS. Fragmenta de viribus medicamentorum positivis in sano corpore humano observatis, 2 teile. Leipzig: J A Barth; 1805.

Pandemia de gripe: homeoprofilaxia e definição do gênio epidêmico

RESUMO

Estudos recentes de genética viral estabelecem o vírus H1N1 suíno – responsável pela atual pandemia – como remanente ou continuação do agente que produziu a epidemia de gripe de 1918. Este estudo visou analisar se esta etiologia comum também se acompanha de correlação significativa das manifestações clínicas. Para tanto, foram coletados dados a fim de comparar a evolução clínica nos casos nas epidemias de 1918 e 2009. Esta revisão histórica foi a base para avaliar a resposta ao tratamento, incluindo o homeopático, na epidemia passada. Discute-se a conveniência de incluir homeoprofilaxia entre as medidas de saúde pública, com base no diagnóstico do gênio epidêmico.

Palavras chave: homeopatia; saúde coletiva; epidemias; influenza A-H1N1.

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RESUMEN

Pandemia de gripe: profilaxis homeopática y definición del genio epidémico

Estudios recientes de genética viral establecen el virus H1N1 porcino – responsable por la pandemia actual – como remanente o continuación del agente que provocó la epidemia de gripe de 1918. Este estudio buscó analizar si esta etiología en común también se acompaña por correlación significativa de las manifestaciones clínicas. Con este fin, fueron recogidos datos con el propósito de comparar la evolución clínica en casos de las epidemias de 1918 y 2009. Esta revisión histórica sirvió como base para evaluar la respuesta al tratamiento, incluyendo homeopatía, en la epidemia anterior. Se discute la conveniencia de incluir profilaxis homeopática entre las medidas de salud pública, basada en el diagnóstico del genio epidémico.

Palabras llave: homeopatia; salud pública; epidemias; influenza A-H1N1

Licensed to GIRI
Support: authors declare that this study received no funding.

Conflict of interest: authors declare there is no conflict of interest.
Received: 01 September 2009; Revised 25 September 2009; Published: 30 September 2009.
Correspondence author: Renan Marino, renanmarino@uol.com.br.
How to cite this article: Marino R. Flu pandemics: homeopathic prophylaxis and definition of the epidemic genius. Int J High Dilution Res. 2009 [cited YYYY Month dd]; 28 (8): 100-109. Available from: http://www.feg.unesp.br/~ojs/index.php/ijhdr/article/view/354/399.

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