New Delhi, February 12: The Honourable Supreme Court has upheld the advisory of Ministry of AYUSH in its judgement dated 15.12.2020 and permitted use of homoeopathy medicine as add on to standard care in COVID-19 treatment. This was clarified by Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State (IC) of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Additional Charge of Minister of State (IC) for the Ministry of AYUSH to the Lok Sabha today.

The clarification was in reply to a question asked by E.T. Mohammed Basheer, M.P. The Minister added that while Homoeopathy treatment is not to be given in standalone mode for COVID-19 treatment, the Ministry of AYUSH through an advisory issued in March 2020 and the ‘Guidelines for AYUSH practitioners for COVID-19’ allowed AYUSH interventions including homoeopathy as add on to standard care. COVID-19 Treatment: AYUSH Doctors Can't Prescribe Medication as Cure for Coronavirus, But Only as Immunity Booster, Says Supreme Court.

He also informed the House that the Ministry of AYUSH has taken many steps with the help of AYUSH systems of Medicine including Homeopathy for COVID-19 related treatment, and cited the Ministry’s advisory issued on 29.01.2020 on “how to protect oneself from COVID and how to stay healthy” (which received wide attention and was adopted by large sections of the population).

The Minister also cited the important letter dated 06.03.2020 issued by the Ministry all Chief Secretaries of States/ Union territories conveying specific suggestions on augmentation of general immunity of people and about possible AYUSH interventions.

The self-care guidelines issued by the Ministry on 31.03.2020 for preventive health measures and enhancing immunity with special reference to respiratory health (which also received wide acceptance) was also mentioned by him.

The reply furnished by the AYUSH Minister also brought out some other information of public interest in the matter of management of Guidelines for Registered Practitioners of respective system of AYUSH (including Homoeopathy), made available in public domain for the benefit of registered AYUSH practitioners including Homoeopathy to help in the management of COVID 19 pandemic uniformly, also found a mention.

Further, AYUSH Ministry through various research organizations and National Institutes under Ministry of AYUSH has conducted about 105 interdisciplinary clinical studies (including 20 studies of Homoeopathy) at 136 centres in the country. Clinical research studies are conducted on AYUSH interventions as prophylactic interventions in high risk population targeting approximately 05 lakhs population and as an add-on to standard care to COVID-19 management.