Homeopathy for infectious diseases: it is time for homeopaths to stop lying

Homeopaths have, since about 200 years, insisted that their remedies are efficacious treatments for infectious diseases. As evidence for this notion, they often produce epidemiological data showing that a group of infected patients treated homeopathically had better results than another group treated conventionally. While potentially interesting, such findings never constitute proof, because the two groups might not have been comparable and many other factors could have determined the observed outcome. In fact, these stories are prime examples for the need of rigorously controlled trials when testing the efficacy of medical treatments.

Homeopaths are invariably unable to provide more compelling evidence for their claims. Instead, they repeat, since 200 years, their assumptions over and over again. Are they not aware, I ask myself, that the repetition of a lie does not create a truth?

What their repetition of lies sometimes does create, unfortunately, is some impact on a political level. This website explains it fairly well:

The Public Health Ministry (of Thailand) is thinking of implementing alternative therapy homeopathy in all districts of Sing Buri this year, after a report that it could boost the human’s body immunity to fight dengue fever, an inspector-general at the ministry said.

Homeopathic medicines had been given to Sing Buri volunteer students from kindergarten to lower-secondary level in a 2012-13 trial and it yielded satisfactory results, said Dr Jakkriss Bhumisawasdi, director of the Inspector-General Region for Bureau of Inspection and Evaluation.

The number of dengue fever cases in Sing Buri have gone down, taking its rankings from No 67 in the country (with one death) in 2011 to No 76 in 2012. As there was a nationwide dengue fever outbreak in 2013, Sing Buri reported the country’s lowest prevalence at 44.95 per 100,000 population.

Jakkriss said “homeopathy” was safe and low-cost and had been used in various countries including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, the United States, Australia, India and Malaysia.

Pilot project

Next, the system of medicine would be implemented in Region 4 Bureau’s seven other provinces: Nakhon Nayok, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Ayutthaya, Lop Buri, Sara Buri and Ang Thong. If this one district per province pilot project went well, they would consider implementing it across the country, he said.

Sing Buri Hospital paediatrician Dr Wali Suwatthika said the preparation involved dissolving Eupatorium herbal pills in drinking water. Each child would be given 3cc of this tasteless water every three months. The trial, which began in July 2012, covered 4,250 children in Muang district and only four of them developed mild dengue fever in one year, while seven out of the district’s 2,856 remaining kids who didn’t get the medicine had dengue fever, in a more severe condition.

Thailand reported 150,934 dengue fever patients last year, double the previous year’s number, and 133 deaths. As there is no vaccine for dengue fever, the Public Health Ministry used a combination of several measures, including the eradication of mosquito larva incubation grounds and a campaign for people to install mosquito nets.

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So, where is the evidence that homeopathy does anything at all for Dengue patients? The 2012-13 trial referred to above has, as far as I can see, not been published. This probably means that it was not a publishable study at all. The only study available on Medline is this one:

A double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized trial of a homeopathic combination medication for dengue fever was carried out in municipal health clinics in Honduras. Sixty patients who met the case definition of dengue (fever plus two ancillary symptoms) were randomized to receive the homeopathic medication or placebo for 1 week, along with standard conventional analgesic treatment for dengue. The results showed no difference in outcomes between the two groups, including the number of days of fever and pain as well as analgesic use and complication rates. Only three subjects had laboratory confirmed dengue. An interesting sinusoidal curve in reported pain scores was seen in the verum group that might suggest a homeopathic aggravation or a proving. The small sample size makes conclusions difficult, but the results of this study do not suggest that this combination homeopathic remedy is effective for the symptoms that are characteristic of dengue fever.

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The bottom line is simple and depressing: the totality of the best available evidence fails to show that homeopathy is efficacious for Dengue fever (or any other infectious disease). It is irresponsible to claim otherwise.