It is now more than one year since the Covid-19 pandemic began. At the start of the pandemic, I collected several cases from YouTube and transcribed them, so that we could better understand the novel coronavirus and the disease in humans. Just as we were beginning to understand many aspects, the second and third waves of the pandemic have shown slightly different clinical presentations - possibly due to mutant viruses. In this article, I want to put down some useful guidelines in prevention and care, based on my experience.
Presently, I tell patients there is no "preventive medicine" in homoeopathy, but to keep Bryonia 200, Ars alb 200, Carb-v 200 and Psorinum 200 at home in case they do get infected. In addition, I strongly recommend everyone to get vaccinated at the earliest possible opportunity. A lot of homoeopaths feel this is heresy, but I have no time for such people. Medicine is not religion. Masks, social distancing and vaccination are the only solution to this pandemic, in my understanding. I also believe short lock-downs of 5 days once a month for 4-6 months would save lives - without affecting livelihoods significantly. They would buy time for ramping up all kinds of medical needs - oxygen, vaccine, drugs, hospital beds and so on.
What we have learned over the past one year is that transmission by fomites (touching surfaces) is much less of a cause for concern. Instead, it is mainly by talking to people, being in closed rooms with infected individuals etc., which is the main method of transmission. So using hand sanitizers constantly, wiping every surface, or washing vegetables etc. (any more than usual) is not really needed. Of course, if there is a covid-positive patient at home, then using a sanitizer or wiping surfaces becomes more important - but still not as important as masking, isolating and ventilating rooms.
I had suggested Spongia tosta both as a preventive as well as in treatment of Covid-19. In practice, I had just two patients who clearly and definitely improved well with this remedy. They had a very dry throat, dry cough and anxiety at night, with breathlessness and a low O2 saturation. There were others who received it and improved, but it was most likely spontaneous recovery. In my practice, the majority of patients improved on Bryonia. The indications were severe body pains, cough, headache worse from talking and better pressure, great thirst etc. In addition, many were affected financially - e.g., lost their job, even left Dubai with no scope of returning etc. I gave arsenic alb only to one patient, but patient did not get better, and was admitted to the ICU. I had no significant results with camphor (I gave it to a good number of patients, both as prophylactic as well as during illness). Two patients improved very well on Opium - with sleepiness, no anxiety at all, and loss of taste and smell. In post-covid cases, where the patient seemed to not want to get back to work, I found Psorinum very effective in one patient. He resumed work the very next day - after sitting at home for about 3 weeks. Carbo veg helped patients with continued breathlessness and weakness after returning home... even after 15 days. A few patients received their constitutional remedy - Naja, Sepia etc., but nothing striking to report. They did well.
Patients are being offered Fabiflu, Ivermectin or antibiotics etc. right from the time of diagnosis. I let patients decide what they want to do, but if they want to be guided by me, I tell them not to take those, but to take a homoeopathic medicine (after taking the history) and in addition, vitamin D3 60k at the start, and a multivitamin supplement. I tell them not to sleep too much in the daytime, and at night to sleep on the abdomen (prone), sides as well as back - i.e. to change position. In daytime, to sleep in a chair if needed, but to move at regular intervals. Movement of the arms and chest are important, as well as deep breathing exercises. Gargle with salt water thrice a day. The entire family should do this. If there is a cough, or after day 3, I ask them to check the oxygen levels thrice a day after a short walk within their room. It should be checked on another person too, to see if the instrument is reliable. If it touches 95, I tell them to also consult an allopathic physician (while continuing my treatment). This is especially if the readings were 97 or 98 earlier. We need to be open to a change of remedy, even one which had helped very nicely earlier. If the dry cough becomes wet, patient gets more drowsy, etc. Most patients run a course of 8-10 days, with tiredness, lots of sleeping and body pains initially, 3-4 days of bad cough towards day 3-8, and then recover completely. Sense of smell and taste may take time to return.
In the next week, I will add lab values for antibodies, D-Dimer, CRP, Ferritin etc. and their significance.