Alternative medicine can be used as immunity booster, not cure for Covid: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court said in prima facie remarks on Thursday that alternative medicine can be used as an immunity booster but not as a cure for Covid-19.
The apex court made the remarks while hearing an appeal against a Kerala High Court order which had asked the state government to use alternative medicine only as an immunity booster.

The high court order of August 21 was challenged by the Dr AKB Sadbhavna Mission School of Homeo Pharmacy through advocate TR Venkita Subramoniam. A bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan issued notices to the central government, formally seeking its stance on the issue.

Justice MR Shah, who was also part of the bench, dubbed the high court ruling correct. “Immunity boosters, not treatment,” he observed in his preliminary observations. “Not everybody can be allowed to treat (Covid).”

The high court had, acting on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a lawyer, ordered that alternative medicine such as homeopathy, Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and naturopathy be used to enhance immunity to resist the disease.

This, the appeal said, was against an April 8 Ayush ministry guideline which allowed all civic authorities to use alternative medicine to deal with the coronavirus.

When the issue came up for appeal on Thursday, the bench, which also included Justice R. Subhash Reddy, sought to know from solicitor general Tushar Mehta whether any guidelines governing the field existed. “This will have an impact throughout the country,” it said.

Mehta said guidelines did exist and they clearly stated which medicines could be prescribed for which symptoms and the doses, etc. He also dubbed the high court order correct but agreed to respond to the court notice on the issue within a week.

A high court bench, comprising chief justice S Manikumar and Shaji P Chaly, had on a petition filed by advocate MS Vineeth alleging that the situation would not be so bad in Kerala if homoeopathic medicines had been given to all, particularly to the people in highly affected districts and to those who were under observation, isolation and quarantine.

The lawyer argued that the homoeopathic system, which had proven in the past its huge potential, cost-effectiveness and convenience when compared to other systems of medicine in controlling all sorts of epidemics, was being shunned. Since no action was taken by the state to implement the Ayush notification, he filed the petition.

In response, the Kerala government said these treatments were not to be given to Covid-19 patients or their contacts or the people under quarantine but for prevention and management of Covid-19 among the rest of the population by prescribing it as an immunity booster.

As per the state medical protocol, Covid-19 affected persons should not be treated by anybody other than the government and those authorised by the government. As per the protocol, doctors practising in Ayush medicines are not supposed to prescribe any medicines stating that they cure Covid-19.

However, as per the advisory, there is nothing prohibiting the qualified medical Ayush practitioners to prescribe immunity booster mixture or tablets, as suggested by the Ayush ministry, it said.

The high court accordingly restricted its use as immunity booster and authorised the state to act against any qualified doctor practising Ayush medicine who makes any advertisement or prescribes any drugs or medicines as a cure for Covid-19.

“Only those tablets or mixtures shall be given as immunity booster and not as cure for Covid-19. Ayush medical practitioners are further directed not to violate the government order dated 6.3.2020. In this regard, medical/police departments are also directed to monitor the action of Ayush medical practitioners,” said the high court order.