The supreme court has upheld the advisory of the AYUSH ministry in its judgement of December 1, 2020 and permitted use of homoeopathy medicine as add on to standard care in COVID-19 treatment, minister Kiren Rijiju clarified in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

Replying to a question by ET Mohammed Basheer, Rijiju, who holds the additional charge as minister of state (IC) for the AYUSH ministry, added that while homoeopathy treatment is not to be given in standalone mode for COVID-19 treatment, the ministry 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.

He also informed the house that the ministry 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 January 29, 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).

He also cited the important letter of March 6, 2020 issued by the ministry to all chief secretaries of states and 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 March 31, 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.