COVID-19 research: WHO, BRICS, Europe join India to conduct research on AYUSH modalities

NEW DELHI: Astounding success of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) interventions that proved to be one of the biggest factors in bringing down the mortality rate in COVID-19 patients in India, has made many global institutions including World Health Organisation (WHO) turn to India to conduct further studies on AYUSH modalities.

WHO is also sponsoring a study on Ayush intervention in collaboration with the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) to look at what we are doing, said Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, AYUSH Ministry.

“Besides WHO sponsoring a study with PHFI in India, we are in talks with WHO to conduct a similar study in South East Asian (SEARO) nations like Sri Lanka.  Also, a UK state university of public health is initiating a study on Ashwagandha. We also in discussions with BRICS nations like Brazil, South Africa, and also Israel for carrying out a joint study, and also with a research outfit of USA’s Harvard School on AYUSH modalities,” Kotecha, who also happens to be an Ayurveda doctor and the former vice-chancellor of Jamnagar-based Gujarat Ayurveda University, told Asian Community News (ACN) Network.

The Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) is aimed at developing education, research, and propagation of indigenous alternative medicine systems in India.

HUGE SUCCESS in SERIES OF STUDIES AT THE DOMESTIC FRONT:

While talking about the success of this complimentary medicinal form with regard to the COVID-19 disease management in India, the AYUSH Ministry secretary said the department conducted 66 studies on 110 locations, and some of these were completed while the studies on other locations were underway.

“For example, we conducted a profile access study on 80,000 Delhi police personnel who were given Ayuraksha kits immune-boosting kits between 20 May to 19 July and they were followed up for one month. As a result, the COVID incidents came down by four times whereas in the general population the cases went up two times during this period. Mortality rate too came down to 0.44 percent from more than two percent of Delhi population,” said Kotecha.

The Ayuraksha kits have Ayurveda formations like Chayavanprash, Ayush Kwath, Giloe Tablets, Samsamani Vati, and Anu Tail.

The study also involved a follow-up study on Delhi police personnel between 20 July and 19 August, which is going on even now too. Kotecha said, after one month, the data remained the same despite the intervention was halted for one month, whereas the incidents rate went up by three times in Delhi population.

In another study at AIIMS, where AYUSH ministry has one COVID care center with 50 beds,  250 COVID-infected people were cured in 2 and a half months with not even a single mortality.

“Not even a single healthcare professional here got infected as against the national average infection rate of six percent. These are strong pieces of evidence of interventions, and we are documenting all these things. Madhya Pradesh government also conducted COVID intervention on a few thousand people, it said they cured faster when given kadha etc. and hospitalizing time also got reduced. This shows effective management of VOCID,” said Kotecha.

AYUSH ministry also conducted a study on 30,000 people in containment zones in Delhi and found that homeopathy, Yunani, Ayurveda, etc intervention resulted in the COVID incidents to less than one percent as compared to the control book where it was 1.5 to 5 %. These are various designs of study.

“After we issued Immunity guidelines, and wanted to understand the impact assessment of this advisory, and we had launched Ayush Sanjivani app and took data till July 31 with a target of 50 lakhs but we able to collect data of 1.47 crore. We found that 85 % were using Ayush modalities. More than 13,000 of them reported that they were affected with COVID, and 69 % were asymptomatic as they followed Ayush. But 66 percent of those who did not follow Ayush modulations, were symptomatic. It’s a simple intervention and this is close to nature, and we can save them from diseases,” said Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha.

CONSENSUS DOCUMENT BASED ON SCIENCE:

On the other front, AYUSH is also working with the labs of CSR, DBT to understand the mechanics of this as the ministry getting very good effects in clinical studies, and it wanted to know how it works.

“We are working on anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, and immune-modulatory effects which we have recommended in our guidelines. Besides, mechanics, we also studied empirical evidence also just as Ashwagandha has more than 550 publications, Pipli has more than 750, and Guduchi more than 1000 publications. So, we are collating information on empirical evidence, experiential knowledge and classical references and trends of our studies, and prepared an argument and submitted it with the committee headed by Dr. Katoch, former DG of ICMR, and all top scientists of the country were the part, and after careful vet it, they also recommended.”

After this Katoch also made a presentation before the committee of ICMR with Dr. Paul as it chairman, the DG of ICMR is the secretary of this committee, and it has top scientists and public health experts of the country. They too appreciated it and said it should come up as a second chapter.

“They recommended to the ministry to get it further vetted through scientists. So the task force that made a research design under the chairmanship of UGC vice-chairman  Prof. Patwardhan. It had representation from Health Ministry also. SO, it’s a consensus document based on science, not only that of the ministry of Ayush,” said Kotecha adding that it’s the clinical management of COVID 19.

“There is a difference between treatment and cure. So, it will be accepted worldwide as it is of a very high level of document based on science as it is that robust,” said Kotecha while cautioning that a false sense of security should not come because of the success as all other precautions like wearing masks, washing hands, maintaining social distancing, etc. were also of equal importance

WHAT NEW AYUSH MINISTRY IS DOING:

Ayush ministry is laying emphasis on more research on non-communicable diseases, which the world is going to encounter more in times to come.

“We have done a pilot study in six districts on 10 lakh people for three years and we found that the simple yoga, Yunani and homeopathy intervention results in reduced dependency on the allopathic medicines as medicines dosages reduce, and doctors recommended to many to shun the use of medicines at all. We have documentation of all. We have just completed our study on Cancer with AIIMS. On dengue also completed a study with ICMR as well,” Kotecha told Asian Community News (ACN) Network.

While admitting that earlier India didn’t have enough research on communicable diseases, Kotecha said that the COVID outbreak had given offered an opportunity to establish that Ayush Veda also worked for communicable diseases. The department has achieved excellent outcomes related to non-communicable or immunity-related and degenerative neurological diseases.

AYUSH Ministry is also conducting a 5-year study with one of the best public institutes of Germany on knee arthritis with the simple intervention of massage with specific oil after administering Ashwagandha.

“Over the period of eight months treatment, we found that it has the same outcome as with the conventional treatment for mobility and prevention of arthritis, and it also found space in a publication which won the best publication award in the complementary medicine category in Eurozone,” Kotecha culminated.