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A malady and some `medicines'

As chikungunya cuts a swathe through seven States, several governments seem to have adopted a desperate, scientifically dubious approach to its medical treatment. Since modern medicine is yet to develop any cures for the disease, doctors have necessarily to rely on a symptomatic and supportive approach. Palliatives such as paracetamol and non-aspirin analgesics have been recommended to relieve pain, particularly joint pain, which accompanies the fever in typical cases. Self-limiting chikungunya is non-fatal; the cases of mortality laid at its door are believed to be on account of wrong diagnosis and modes of treatment, or complications caused to the immune system. Meanwhile, certain systems of alternative medicine — including homeopathy, siddha, and ayurveda — have jumped into the field, with `preventive' remedies and even `cures.' Hard-pressed State governments are endorsing and deploying them, letting patients try their luck. In Kerala, a "Rapid Action Epidemic Cell in Homoeopathy" has been officially set up, with district-level groups distributing drugs and scores of medical camps administering formulations on a massive scale. Andhra Pradesh has claimed it has distributed three `preventive' doses of homeopathic formulations to millions of people; a combination of four `curative' substances has also been supplied through dispensaries of the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, and Homeopathy (AYUSH). Tamil Nadu, after holding out against the unproven alternative remedies, has announced resort to indigenous formulations recommended by the Directorate of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy. In Karnataka, the alternative options have not been mainstreamed, but Rs.20 lakh has been officially allocated for dispensing homeopathic and ayurvedic formulations in the northern region.

Practitioners of modern medicine are naturally concerned about this trend. Can unproven alternatives be allowed to fill the vacuum caused by modern medicine's honesty in acknowledging that, as yet, it has no preventive or curative answers to chikungunya? A mass educational campaign is needed as are special allopathic clinics to offer consultations and medication on a symptomatic and supportive basis. The most credible promise of a cure for chikungunya based on modern science has come from the French Government, which recently announced that a drug would be available this year. France and the United States have agreed to work together on a vaccine. In battling scourges in this globalised age, humankind must necessarily rely on science and sound policy responses based on science.

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