Role of Homoeopathy in Viral Infection

In the past few decades, India has witnessed a marked increase in the incidence and
prevalence of viral infections. Some of these infections have raised much concern
because of their severity, extent of spread, and burden on health services.
Although antiviral drugs have been developed for use as prophylactics and
therapeutic agents, they have some disadvantages, such as adverse effects and the
development of resistance. Further, the large demand for these drugs during
epidemics places a huge strain on national health resources.
In general, viral infections pose several problems to their treatment. These issues
can be mainly attributed to certain properties of viruses themselves. Viruses are
capable of developing alternative means of survival in the face of antibodies,
immune cells, chemotherapeutic agents, or other hostile elements; their survival is
achieved by mutations, recombination, and changes in biochemical pathways.
Under these circumstances, there has been growing interest in the use of alternative
therapies in the management of viral infections. Homeopathy has attracted
considerable attention during the last few years, with a large number of patients
receiving and seeking homeopathic treatment for both the management and
prevention of diseases.
The medicines are believed to enhance the immune response of the individual,
enabling him/her to combat the disease and restore normal health.
For a homeopath, the most important aspect of approaching a case is thorough case
taking; sometimes seemingly insignificant details may help the homeopath select the
most suitable remedy. The choice of the remedy is mainly based on the symptom
totality, which encompasses the physical and mental makeup of the patient .
The selected medicine or genus epidemicus may not be able to take care of the
case all alone but it can definitely reduce the gravity of the viral load on the system.
Since the choice of the homeopathic remedy for a given case is based mainly on the
clinical presentation, i.e., the signs and symptoms, the isolation of the physical
'causative' agent, e.g., the bacterial or viral infectious agent is not mandatory for
definitive treatment. Therefore, homoeopathic medicines can be employed even in
cases of infection where the pathogenic organism cannot be readily identified or
isolated.
This makes the system ideal for the treatment of new and emerging infectious
diseases, which are currently a major public health concern. The management of
such diseases may be improved by the combined use of homeopathy and effective
public health measures.

Besides managing the acute infections, carefully selected homeopathic medicines

are also capable of correcting the tendency for recurrent viral infections. Although the
results of a large, prospective, multicenter cohort study examining the long-term
benefits of homeopathic treatment in reducing disease severity and improving the
patients' quality of life have been encouraging but still insuffcient.
This implies that given the opportunity, homeopathy can greatly reduce the burden
on public health services; this would be particularly beneficial for a developing
country like ours.
Homeopathy has been and is, to some extent, a frequent target of scepticism
because of the supposed lack of sufficient evidence validating its fundamental tenets
and clinical efficiency. Research on this relatively new field of medicine is still in its
infancy and warrants a sea change to establish beyond doubt the credibility of this
therapeutic system.
All in all, homeopathy has great potential as a therapeutic system that stands at par
with conventional medicine. With evidence to the effectiveness of homeopathy
mounting, this stream of therapeutics can be expected to gain widespread
acceptance both nationally and internationally and establish its supremacy, at least
in certain therapeutic areas.
DR.ASHOK SHARMA.
CHIEF MEDICAL OFFCER (NFSG),
Vivek Vihar Dispensary, Dte. of AYUSH, Govt. of NCT of Delhi.

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Viral infections are the most common infections we come across in our day to day
practice. Since last one decade every year we are facing many dangerous viral
infections like dengue ,plague, swine flu, bird flu , influenza, SARS, Hepatitis, AIDS,
chicken pox, measles, herpes and many skin complaints which are sufficient
enough to cause panic among the people. But as in homeopathy we treat the
patient on the basis of symptom similarity so diagnosis becomes only a term for us
and in recent years it has been proved that homeopathy can play an important role if
given on time with proper management and also for after effects of viral infections
.Aresenic Album , Rhus tox, gelsemium, belladonna ,lachesis , euptorium perf ,
influenzam, Thuja , and constitutionally selected medicines have given wonderful
results in in viral infections. During epidemics Genus Epidemics has proved its
benefits again and again. Its cost effectiveness and easy intake are added
advantages .No doubt very soon homeopathy will become first line of treatment.
Hail Homeopathy !

DR. SUNITA SINGH

SMO(H), Bank Enclave Dispensary, Dte. of AYUSH, Govt. of NCT of Delhi.

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The biggest challenge faced by the modern medicine today in this era of
globalization is treatment of viral infection. This is due to the fact antibiotics are
ineffective against viral illnesses and viruses can adapt themselves rapidly to build
resistance against drugs; and secondly due to growing emergence of new viruses
owing to their capability of showing mutation i.e. changing and modifying their type,
strain and genetic information. Thus, vaccine, which has been used the previous
years, will not hold good for the following years.

Here comes the potential competence and efficacy of Homoeopathy because

selection of medicine is not dependent upon nature of infecting organisms but
individualistic signs and symptoms of infected patients unlike the modern medicine.
In these so-called notorious viral illnesses, homoeopathy helps to restore order both
in the area of prevention as well as treatment. Homoeopathy can prevent these viral
epidemics by homoeoprothylaxis by individualized, constitutional, antimiasmatic
treatment and also by Genus Epidemicus (a specific medicine selected after
anamnesis of symptoms observed in a wide array of patients). Aim of treatment in
these cases is directed towards alleviation of sufferings of patients, increase the
resistance of immune system to fight the virus, decrease the severity and spread of
infection and prevent it complexities.

Homoeopathic treatment does not merely help in decreasing the gravity of events
but also help prevent its future recurrences by increasing resistance of the immune
system as people with deficient immune system are more vulnerable to infections.
Hence, there is panacea for every illness in Homoeopathy.
DR. SHRUTI GORA
S.M.O(H), Dte. of AYUSH, Govt. of NCT of Delhi.