Covid-19 patients treated with combination of allopathy & ayurveda recover faster: Gujarat govt study

In the middle of raging protest by doctors against yoga guru Ramdev's remarks against allopathy, the Gujarat government on Tuesday released "findings" of a "research" conducted on coronavirus infected patients who were treated with allopathy medicine, as per the standard protocol, and combination of allopathy with ayurvedic medicines.

The "findings" claimed that those patients treated with combination of allopathy and ayurveda reportedly recovered faster than the group treated with only allopathic medicine. The "research work" titled "Evaluation of Efficacy of an Ayurved Management as a Supportive Therapy in SARS - CoV-2 Mild Positive patients- An Open Labeled Randomized Active Control Trial" was carried out on 52 infected patients at the civil hospital.

The 52 patients were divided into two groups- Standard Treatment Group (STG)- which was given standard allopathic treatment and Ayurvedic Treatment Group (ATG), which was treated with state government recognised ayurvedic treatment along with standard allopathic medicines. Each group had 26 patients.

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According to the government, the research was carried out by specialists from Akhandanand Ayurveda College and state government's Office of Director, Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy or AYUSH. However, none of the findings have been published in any journal with supporting evidence yet. Director, AYUSH, Bhavna Patel told DH, "That process (of publishing) the finding is on verge of completion."

Dr Devendra Patel, President of Indian Medical Association, Gujarat chapter, said that, "I have no knowledge about this research but I think if the findings are based on solid scientific evidence then there is no harm. There should be proper documentation with supporting evidence to back the claim." He added that "We are not against any pathy provided that they are based on proof."

The government's release stated that 26 patients were examined before their treatment, during treatment and after treatment. No adverse drug reaction was found in any of the patients. The study reportedly revealed that RT-PCR tests on STG group took 19.15 days to become negative while "in Ayurveda treatment it took an average of 7.5 days." The release claims that none of the ATG group patients reported increase in symptoms or referred to ICU.

Three patients in the Ayurveda group recovered in 0-5 days, which is 3% of the total patients involved in the research, while in STG not a single patient was found to recover in 7 days. "The patients who received Ayurveda treatment had symptoms of fever, shortage of breath, cold running nose, general weakness, headache and nausea. Such patients, the study has reportedly found, found relief in an average three days.

According to the release, "the research was conducted under the guidance of Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel (also the health minister) with the prior approval of Jayanti Ravi, Principal Secretary, Department of Health."