A few weeks ago, I blogged about a pilot study of homeopathy to prevent COVID infections. Now a similar trial has been published – also in the journal ‘HOMEOPATHY’.
In this double-blind, cluster-randomized, placebo-controlled, four parallel arms, community-based, clinical trial, a 20,000-person sample of the population residing in Ward Number 57 of the Tangra area, Kolkata, was randomized in a 1:1:1:1 ratio of clusters to receive one of three homeopathic medicines:
- Bryonia alba 30cH,
- Gelsemium sempervirens 30cH,
- Phosphorus 30cH,
- or an identical-looking placebo.
The treatment period lasted for 3 (children) or 6 (adults) days. All the participants, who were aged 5 to 75 years, received ascorbic acid (vitamin C) tablets of 500 mg, once per day for 6 days. In addition, instructions on a healthy diet and general hygienic measures, including handwashing, social distancing, and proper use of facemasks and gloves, were given to all the participants.
No new confirmed COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in the target population during the follow-up timeframe of 1 month-December 20, 2020 to January 19, 2021-thus making the trial inconclusive.
The Phosphorus group had the least exposure to COVID-19 compared with the other groups. In comparison with placebo, the occurrence of unconfirmed COVID-19 cases was significantly less in the Phosphorus group (week 1: odds ratio [OR], 0.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.06 to 0.16; week 2: OR, 0.004; 95% CI, 0.0002 to 0.06; week 3: OR, 0.007; 95% CI, 0.0004 to 0.11; week 4: OR, 0.009; 95% CI, 0.0006 to 0.14), but not in the Bryonia or Gelsemium groups.
The authors concluded that the trial was inconclusive. The possible effect exerted by Phosphorus necessitates further investigation.
How can this be?
If you conduct a COVID prevention trial, would you not make sure that rigorous testing for COVID of all participants is implemented?
Unfortunately, I cannot access the full article – if someone can, please send it to me. From reading just the abstract I cannot help feeling that there is something very wrong here. And from looking at the list of authors’ affiliations I am not convinced that the authors are all that objective about the potential of homeopathy:
- Department of Community Medicine, D.N.De Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Govt. of West Bengal, Tangra, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
- 2Department of Organon of Medicine and Homoeopathic Philosophy, D.N.De Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Govt. of West Bengal, Tangra, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
- 3Department of Pathology & Microbiology, D.N.De Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Govt. of West Bengal, Tangra, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
- 4Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, DN.De Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Govt. of West Bengal, Tangra, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
- 5Department of Materia Medica, D.N.De Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Govt. of West Bengal, Tangra, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
- 6Department of Repertory, D.N.De Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Govt. of West Bengal, Tangra, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
- 7Department of Practice of Medicine, D.N.De Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Govt. of West Bengal, Tangra, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
- 8Department of Surgery, D.N.De Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Govt. of West Bengal, Tangra, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
- 9Department of Homoeopathic Pharmacy, D.N.De Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Govt. of West Bengal, Tangra, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
- 10Department of Physiology, D.N.De Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Govt. of West Bengal, Tangra, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
- 11Department of Anatomy, D.N.De Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Govt. of West Bengal, Tangra, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
- 12Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, D.N.De Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Govt. of West Bengal, Tangra, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
4 Responses to A new trial of homeopathy for preventing COVID-19 infections
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Can’t help but notice that this study was funded by Ministry of AYUSH. Apparently, they have been busy funding studies left and right: https://www.ayush.gov.in/docs/Updated%20status%20COVID%20Studies.pdf
The Ministry’s Covid-19 advisory: https://www.ayush.gov.in/docs/Advisory-on-Covid-19.pdf promotes the use of AYUSH-64 ayurvedic pills as intervention for Covid-19 infections based on a handful of small studies, the study with the largest cohort contains 140 patients.
Ayurveda is one the most popular CAMs used by millions of people in India. At one point during the pandemic the government of India was distributing AYUSH-64 pill for free: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/coronavirus/free-distribution-of-ayush-64-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-ayurvedic-drug-to-treat-covid-6876401.html.
Two years into the pandemic, one must wonder if the Ministry is serious about the pandemic. Are they going to fund any large-scale studies to determine the efficacy of AYUSH-64? Or do they exist to promote Ayurveda and other CAMs at the expense of 1.3 billion people.
Re: “inconclusive”. Probably means that there was no evidence of difference from placebo, i.e. not noticeably better or noticeably worse.
Funded by the Indian Ministry of AYUSH, endorsed by the Ministry of TOSH.
(Therapeutic Options Scams and Hustles)
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.16.21262044v1
Maybe above will get peered reviewed