News Analysis India

Tag: Allopathy

  • Supreme Court to examine original records of Ramdev’s statement on allopathy

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court would examine on Monday the original records of the statements of Yoga guru Ramdev on the use of allopathic medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic following his plea to stay investigation and transfer the cases lodged against him in this connection to Delhi.

    Multiple FIRs have been lodged against Ramdev in Patna and Raipur following complaints by the Indian Medical Association.

    A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and justices A S Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy would on Monday hear the plea of Ramdev seeking clubbing of the FIRs on the issue and their transfer to Delhi.

    As an interim relief, Ramdev has also urged for a stay on the investigation in connection with the criminal complaints.

    “What is the original thing which he has said? You have not placed the whole thing,” the bench had observed which prompted senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Ramdev, to say that the original records of his statements would be filed.

    The criminal complaints have been lodged by Indian Medical Association (IMA) in Bihar and Chhattisgarh over his alleged remarks against the use of allopathic medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The Patna and Raipur chapters of the IMA have lodged complaints against Ramdev,alleging that his remarks are likely to cause prejudice to the COVID control mechanism and may dissuade people from availing proper treatment against the pandemic.

    The yoga guru has been booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

    Sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the IPC have been invoked against him.

    Ramdev, whose alleged statements stirred a nationwide debate over the issue of Allopathy versus Ayurveda, however, had withdrawn his statements on May 23 after receiving a letter from Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, who had called his remarks as “inappropriate”.

    The top court is likely to also consider a plea of the Delhi Medical Association (DMA) which has sought permission to become a party to the case, alleging that Ramdev insulted allopathy and “instigated” people to disregard vaccines and treatment protocols.

    The DMA, having 15,000 Delhi doctors as members, has claimed that Ramdev’s Patanjali earned over Rs 1,000 crore by selling Coronil kits which were not approved by medical bodies.

  • ‘Doctors are god’s envoy’: Baba Ramdev backs allopathy for emergency treatment

    Express News Service
    DEHRADUN: Baba Ramdev on Thursday said allopathy is best for emergency treatment while ayurveda and Yoga saying are effective in ‘lifestyle’, ‘genetic’ and ‘incurable’ diseases.  “For emergency treatment and surgery, allopathy is the best there are no two opinions about this,” said the Yoga Guru. 

    He supported ayurveda and Yoga saying that these two are effective in ‘lifestyle’, ‘genetic’ and ‘incurable’ diseases and health problems. “Ayurveda and Yoga are effective in treating lifestyle’, ‘genetic’ and ‘incurable’ diseases. It is a known fact since centuries without any doubt,” added Ramdev. 

    The Yoga Guru was replying to the queries related to the scuffle between him and the Indian Medical Association after his comments calling allopathy a ‘Stupid Science’. The Yoga Guru also praised the doctors. 

    “Doctors are devdoots. They are a boon to humankind on this earth by God. We can’t be enemies with any group. If someone does a mischief it’s that individual’s fault not of any ‘pathy’,” said the Yoga Guru while interacting with scribes in Haridwar. 

    Targeting high cost of patent drugs, he said, “Prime Minister Medicine Centers were opened to address this problem of unaffordable cost of patent medicines which costs 10, 20, 50, 100 and even 200 times in some cases. All we want is that no one should be forced to buy medicines at inflated costs.”

    He also advised people to be aware of excessive medication and surgical procedures though did not elaborate on it.

    On June 4, 2021, after learning that Baba Ramdev has suggested the Uttarakhand government to include Patanjali Yogpeeth’s ‘Coronil’ in COVID kit, Uttarakhand chapter of Indian Medical Association wrote a letter to Chief Secretary to take action in the matter.

    The letter said that addition of Coronil with Allopathic drugs shall also amount to ”mixopathy”- a cocktail of Allopathy and Ayurved which is not permitted as per rulings of the apex court. It asserted that apart from the apex court several High Courts of various states have also ruled that mixopathy is not allowed. 

    The letter dated June 4, 2021 by the IMA said, “Sir, I would be highly obliged if you kindly take prompt action and direct the Secretary Health, Govt. of Uttarakhand accordingly. This is for your information, necessary action and appraisal of the Honourable Chief Minister.”

    The COVID kit is provided by the state health department to the people who are diagnosed with mild symptoms or have no symptoms at all. The kit includes a thermometer, paracetamol, Vitamin D, Zinc and ivermectin tablet and an anti-parasitic drug. 

    The letter mentioning that tablet Coronil is ‘NOT approved by WHO, DGCI and even Ayush Vibhag’ and furthermore has no place in the central guidelines for Corona of Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) stated, “Coronil is however recognized as a food supplement by Ayush Vibhag of central government and it is not a drug or medicine as claimed by Baba Ramdev on national TV on hourly basis advertisements,” it said.

    “Hence, addition of Coronil shall be contempt of court. I am sending you the various decisions and rulings of Hon’ble Supreme Court and High courts on your whatsapp for your kind perusal,” the letter said.  The IMA letter further added that Section 34 of National Medical Commission also does not allow the practice of mixing allopath and ayurvedic prescriptions.

  • Ayurveda-Allopathy COVID-19 treatment study effective: Gujarat government

    By PTI
    AHMEDABAD: Ayurveda along with standard Allopathic treatment has been found to be effective on COVID- 19 patients in a study done by the Gujarat government’s AYUSH department with the approval of an expert Allopathic committee, officials said on Tuesday.

    The study was conducted on two groups of patients admitted in the 1200-bed COVID facility in the civic hospital here, with set A receiving standard Allopathic treatment and group B getting a government-approved fixed protocol of Ayurvedic and Allopathic treatments, an official release said.

    “Patients receiving Ayurvedic treatment along with Allopathic treatment recovered faster, and their symptoms were relieved faster compared to those who received only standard Allopathic treatment,” it said.

    A set of Ayurvedic medicines were administered to the patients in group B for a maximum of 28 days, or until they tested negative for COVID-19 in RT-PCR tests.

    While those in group A tested negative for COVID-19 in an average of 12.19 days, this time was 7.85 days for those in group B, it added.

    ALSO READ: Gujarat doctors approach police for action against Ramdev

    No patient in the Ayurveda treatment group reported any worsening of symptoms or the need to be admitted to an ICU, nor did any patient died, and they recovered in zero to three days, while not a single patient in group A recovered in three days, it said.

    “Patients receiving Ayurveda treatment in group B were relieved of symptoms such as fever in 3.95 days, sore throat in 7.5 days, cough in 15.21 days, shortness of breath (dyspnea) in 14.76 days, cold in 10.5 days, weakness in ten days, headache in 11.75 days and nausea in 3 days,” the release said.

    Ayurvedic treatment given to COVID-19 patients along with standard Allopathic treatment proved to be effective as per the study, the state government said, adding that the 26 patients had given their consent to be part of it.

    “They were subjected to examination before, during and after treatment and no adverse drug reaction (ADR) was found in any of them.

    Moreover, RT-PCR tests were conducted before and after treatment,” it said.

  • Indian Medical Association challenges Ramdev, Balkrishna for open debate

    Express News Service
    DEHRADUN: After Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev called allopathy medicine ‘stupid science’, the Uttarakhand chapter of the Indian Medical Association on Friday challenged him for an open debate on a public platform in presence of the media in response to his 25 questions to Ayurveda. 

    The IMA called his statement ‘rash, irresponsible and selfish’.

    The IMA wrote a letter challenging him for open debate. 

    The letter dated May 28, 2021, said, “This is to inform you that IMA UA State through its state office request you to constitute a team of qualified and duly registered Ayurvedacharyas from Patanjali Yogpeeth to have a one-to-one discussion with a team of doctors of IMA UA State which has already been constituted by the state office. This one-to-one panel discussion shall be closely supervised and recorded by the electronic and print media which shall also be invited in this panel discussion,”.

    The letter further stated that Ramdev and his aide Balkrishna can also join the team of Ayurvedacharyas but only as spectators because they have not sent the qualification to the state office of the IMA. 

    “The responsibility is on you to decide the date and time of the above proposed healthy discussion, however, the venue shall be decided by us. The above proposal is for your kind consideration and implementation at the earliest to ensure that the deadlock and the confusion created by you shall meet its end. From this day onwards the onus lies on you regarding the above issue,” said the letter further. 

    The letter further said that this activity shall “ensure the harmony between Allopath & Ayurved to be restored again as it was in the past but was disturbed for these couple of days by your rash, irresponsible and selfish statement”. 

    The IMA, in another letter also demanded a list of hospitals where thousands of patients experienced the effective impact of products of Patanjali Yogpeeth. 

    “I request you to kindly provide the list to the IMA UA state office immediately so that it can be confirmed whether your studies have some rational bases or not,” said the letter dated May 28, 2021. 

    Earlier, the IMA wrote a letter to the Prime Minister of India urging them to stop the misinformation campaign by Baba Ramdev and take appropriate action against him. 

    The letter dated May 26, 2021, says, “At this juncture, painfully we bring to your notice the video claiming that 10,000 doctors have died inspite of taking both the dose of vaccine and lakhs of people have due to allopathic medicine are circulating widely in the social media as said by Mr. Ramdev owner of Patanjali products.”

    Despite repeated calls and messages. the spokesperson of Patanjali Yogpeeth was not available for comment.

  • IMA serves defamation notice on Baba Ramdev for remarks against allopathic doctors

    By PTI
    DEHRADUN: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has served a defamation notice on Ramdev for alleged disparaging remarks against allopathy and allopathic doctors, demanding an apology from him within 15 days, failing which it said it will demand a compensation of Rs 1,000 crore from the yoga guru.

    The six-page notice served on behalf of IMA (Uttarakhand) secretary Ajay Khanna by his lawyer Neeraj Pandey describes the remarks by Ramdev as damaging to the reputation and the image of allopathy and around 2,000 practitioners of it who are part of the association.

    Terming the remarks of the yoga guru a “criminal act” under section of 499 of the Indian Penal Code, the notice demanded a written apology from him within 15 days of its receipt, saying a compensation of Rs 1,000 crore will be demanded from him at the rate of Rs 50 lakh per member of the IMA if he failed to do so.

    The notice has also asked Ramdev to make a video clip contradicting all his allegations and circulate it on the social media platforms where he had uploaded his earlier video levelling them.

    It further asked the yoga guru to withdraw a “misleading” advertisement from all platforms endorsing “Coronil kit”, a product of his firm, as an effective medicine for COVID-19, failing which an FIR and a criminal case will be lodged against him by the IMA.

    On Sunday, Ramdev was forced to withdraw a statement made in a viral video clip in which he is heard questioning some of the medicines being used to treat the coronavirus infection and saying that “lakhs have died from taking allopathic medicines for COVID-19”.

    The remarks were met with vociferous protests from the doctors’ association, following which Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan asked him to withdraw the “extremely unfortunate” statement.

    A day later, the yoga guru posed 25 questions to the IMA in an ‘open letter’ on his Twitter handle, asking if allopathy offered permanent relief for ailments such as hypertension and type-1 and 2 diabetes.

    He went on to list modern day ailments such as Parkinson’s disease and wondered if allopathy had any painless cure to treat infertility as well as to reverse ageing and increase hemoglobin.

    Soon after, Ramdev’s close aide Acharya Balkrishna took to Twitter, saying the yoga guru and Ayurveda were being targeted by allopathic practitioners under the IMA as part of a conspiracy.

    “As part of the conspiracy to convert the entire country into #Christianity, #Yoga and #Ayurveda are being maligned by targeting @yogrishiramdev jee. Countrymen, wake up now from the deep slumber otherwise the generations to come will not forgive you,” Balkrishna said in a tweet.

  • Withdrawing comments on allopathic medicines, regret controversy: Ramdev

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Yoga guru Ramdev on Sunday withdrew his recent statements on allopathic medicine which had triggered strong protests from the medical fraternity.

    Responding to a letter from Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Ramdev said he wants to put the matter to rest.

    “Hon’ble Minister, I have received your letter. I withdraw my statement, putting to rest the controversy over various medical practices…(jee aapaka patr praapt hua, uske sandarbh mein chikitsa paddatiyon ke sangharsh ke is poore vivaad ko khedapoorvak viraam dete hue main apna vaktavya vaapis leta hoon),” Ramdev tweeted from his personal Twitter handle, attaching his statement.

    Citing a video circulating on social media, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) had on Saturday said Ramdev claimed that allopathy is a “stupid science”.

    He also allegedly said medicines such as remdesivir, fabiflu and other drugs approved by the Drugs Controller General of India have failed to treat COVID-19 and “lakhs of patients have died after taking allopathic medicines.”

    The apex doctors’ body urged the union health minister to take strict action against Ramdev for misleading people by making “unlearned” statements against allopathy.

    In a strongly-worded letter to Ramdev on Sunday, Harsh Vardhan said his remarks on allopathic medicine were “extremely unfortunate”.

    “The statement disrespects the corona warriors and hurt the sentiments of the country. Your statement on allopathy can break the morale of healthcare workers and weaken our fight against COVID-19,” he said.

    Vardhan further said allopathic medicines have saved lives of crores and comments that the drugs are responsible for death of lakhs is “extremely unfortunate”.

    Replying to the minister’s letter, Ramdev in his statement said he respects all forms of medical science and allopathy doctors have saved people during the pandemic by risking their own lives.

    “I accept that allopathy has shown remarkable progress in life-saving system (jeevan raksha pranali) and surgery and has served humanity,” he said.

    Regarding the video in question, Ramdev said he was actually reading out messages forwarded on WhatsApp.

    “…if that has hurt sentiments of anyone, then I regret it,” he added.

    However, he also said traditional ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy have also controlled and provided permanent solution to several complex diseases like blood pressure, thyroid, sugar, arthritis, hepatitis and asthma.

    “…the allopathic doctors should also not mock the Indian medical systems like ayurveda and yoga by calling it as ‘pseudo-science’ as it hurts crores of people…,” he asserted.

    Earlier, the IMA said Ramdev’s remarks should be “considered as hate speech” and he should be booked under the Epidemic Diseases Act for misleading people by making “untutored and unlearned” statements.

    “We demand an unconditional public apology from Ramdev to allopathy and its practitioners,” IMA had said.

  • Three types of therapy in AIIMS, 1200 availed in a year

    A national webinar was organized on the occasion of Unani Medicine Day at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, AIIMS Raipur. This medical practice was said to be very effective in curing modern lifestyle related diseases.

    On this occasion, it was called to experiment with allopathy as a combined medical system and to spread its usefulness through research. Director Professor Nitin M. Nagerkar said that Unani system of medicine is becoming increasingly popular. For this treatment, patients are constantly approached in AIIMS.

    He explained the usefulness of Unani system in the treatment of lifestyle diseases through various Unani therapies. Emphasized making it more popular. Dr. Aseem Ali Khan, Director General of Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine New Delhi, emphasized the combined use of allopathy and Unani medicine.