Epidemics are on the rise and with so many people traveling around the world daily, there are no protected places from outbreaks. Covid19is a perfect example of how an epidemic can spread rapidly, exponentially and globally. It affects many people: physically, emotional and financially. 

 

There has been a general feeling of panic: people I speak to are frightened, confused and disempowered. The response to the pandemic brought about by government decree and individual fear of contagion, has been to grab a plethora of essentials, withdraw from society, lock ourselves away into our own world and hide from the invisible enemy. Concurrently we are all tracking the impact and extent of the virus via many media sources. With nearly 3.5 million cases and 240,000 deaths to date, we watch horrified as many are buried in mass graves without farewell. 

 

These unforeseen, frightening circumstances are all the more formidable owing to the fact that our medical establishment has currently no therapeutic response other than the age-old recommendation of distance and isolation or intubation to the seriously affected in intensive care.  And yet when we look at the statistics countries like India, where social isolation is extremely difficult report 27 deaths per million population but the USA report 200 deaths per million of population. Although there is a feeling that the worst may be over, the graphs say otherwise. According to worldometer, https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/, the graphs depicting total cases and total deaths still have exponential growth world wide. How do we, as parents, loved ones, friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, best protect ourselves and each other when we are exposed to such a pervasive challenge? 

 

We cannot rely on vaccines, which take a minimum of 6-9 months to develop, by which time much of the damage has been done. What has been the most effective, immediate action in the last 200 years?

 

One option is homeopathy. Its remedies are accessible and ready for dispensing almost instantly and have proved effective and affordable historically in epidemics, saving lives and easing the burden epidemics create. Knowing there will be more epidemics in most of our lifetimes, it is useful to know that, since its inception, homeopathy has offered an effective health care option in these sorts of times. This historical evidence offers much that might be fruitfully applied currently and in the future. 

 

In this article I will describe the different types of collective disease, compare epidemic outcomes of biomedicine and homeopathy, suggest a benefit of pandemic outbreaks and offer solution options for the best collective outcome for mankind humans and the planet.

 

4 types of collective disease

As there are four types of collective disease I will explain their differences.

 

1. Sporadic

2. Endemic

3. Epidemic

4. Pandemic

 

A sporadicdisease is a disease that occurs occasionally, singularly, or in scattered instances. Generally only a few persons are affected at one time as only a few are susceptible. There is not a particular pattern to the outbreak, rather the outbreak is scattered. Despite there not seeming to be a connection to the separate cases, all may originate from one source. A sporadic outbreak of disease happens at a particular time but does not occur in the same location. It is often difficult to find the source of the original disease.

 

With endemicdisease there is a cluster of sick people in the one location. There is still one source for the outbreak, which is much easier to determine, as the disease cases are all close together. Often there is an environmental influence as seen in northern America where there is an iodine insufficiency in the drinking water resulting in endemic thyroid disease and goiter formation. Also, Lyme disease is concentrated along the shores of north-eastern USA and other areas, and this is easy to explain because of deer and other animals that carry the Lyme tick and spread the disease. In Australia there are endemic outbreaks of Barmah Forest virus, Ross River Fever, Flaviviruses associated with encephalitis and dengue fever in various locations throughout Australia. There are a variety of mosquito vectors for Barmah Forest virus and Ross River Fever, which facilitate the transmission of these diseases. As these mosquitos thrive in certain areas, there is increased risk of endemic disease in these locations.  Endemic disease is defined by location not time. 

 

Epidemicdisease is characterised by being in one geographical location; affects a large number of people and happens at one time.  It is therefore more acute than endemic disease. An example of an epidemic was the 2014-15 influenza outbreak, where the disease was concentrated mainly in southwestern and central USA.  Another was the 1854 cholera epidemic, which was concentrated around certain parts of London. In this particular cholera outbreak its proximity enabled doctors to find its source, a contaminated water pump, and once discovered they were able to stop its spread. In Australia, throughout history there have been epidemics of plague, smallpox, tuberculosis and polio and more recently measles, whooping cough and influenza. Epidemics are characterised by one place at one time.  

 

The last type of collective disease is a pandemic.  A pandemic is the same as an epidemic but on a much larger scale, spanning larger areas, usually whole continents, and happening at the same time, but over a longer period of time. Examples of pandemics are: the Spanish flu in 1918–1920 which infected 500,000,000 people worldwide and the H1N1 influenza of 2009 that spread through South and North America, large parts of Asia and Australia. There is also an aids pandemic, spreading mainly through Africa, especially sub-Saharan, the USA and India. At present the COVID 19 pandemic is terrifying the world, as it spreads across the globe.

 

The value of homeopathy in epidemics – historical evidence

 

In the 1918-20, Spanish flu, a well documented pandemic of influenza, evidence of homeopathic efficacy was described through individual doctors reporting their experience, this information being collected and collated and published in the homeopathic journals of the time. Hospital records were also reviewed. While diagnostic criteria may have been less well developed, the collective case reports showed a remarkable efficacy of homeopathic treatment compared to conventional treatment.  

 

Homeopathy has been documented over 200 years as successfully treating epidemics. Some examples follow.

 

 

1. In 1813 the typhus fever epidemicstruck central Europe. This disease of sudden onset presented with symptoms of headache, chills, high fever, prostration, coughing and severe muscular pain. After 5–6 days, a macular skin eruption (dark spots) developed first on the upper trunk and spread to the rest of the body. Typhus fever was spread by lice and caused devastation wherever it struck including bringing to ruin the army of Napoleon. Wars and epidemics often go hand in hand. As this epidemic came through Leipzig, where Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, was working, he treated 180 cases losing only 2 patients that is less than 1% of cases. Conventional doctors working alongside him in this epidemic reported a mortality rate of 30%.

2. Seventeen years later in 1830-1832 a cholera epidemicstruck throughout Russia and then the rest of Europe and the USA. Cholera is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium virio cholera. The bacteria generally live in water and people become infected after drinking the water or eating food contaminated with the bacteria. Symptoms for serious cases include severe diarrhoea, vomiting and leg cramps. This leads to dehydration, septic shock and oftentimes death, sometimes within the matter of a few hours. Hahnemann was able to identify the stages of the illness and predict what homeopathic remedies would be needed for each stage. The knowledge that the illness would require more than one remedy as it passed through its different stages was an important finding. When the epidemic hit Europe the reported mortality rate under conventional medicine was 40-80%. Homeopathy reported much better results as seen below:                                                                                                           Dr. Quinn of London reported a mortality rate of 9%                                     Dr. Roth in Bavaria reported 7%                                                                  Admiral Moroinow of Russia 10%                                                                       The House of Commons asked for a report describing the treatment results of the epidemic. However, the report did not include homeopathic treatment. The results showed mortality of patients under conventional treatment to be 59.2%

3. Yellow Fevercame in several waves in Southern USA.  Yellow fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. The "yellow" in the name refers to the jaundice that affects some patients. Symptoms of yellow fever include: fever, headache, jaundice, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting and fatigue.                                                                                                 Conventional medicine reported a mortality rate of up to 85%                     Homeopathic treatment reported a mortality of 6%                                               Dr. Holcombe, a well respected homeopathic physician, reported losses of 5.7%                                                                                                                                   Dr. Davis a homeopath in New Orleans 5.5%

4. Diphtheriastruck USA and Europe in 1862. The bacterium C diphtheria is responsible for both endemic and epidemic diseases. Hippocrates first described it in the 5th century BC. Diphtheria manifests as either a severe upper respiratory tract infection with a very sore throat and a membrane that can occlude the airway or a cutaneous infection. The infection usually occurs in the spring or winter months. It is communicable for 2-6 weeks. Although it often times affects young children, people of any age can come down with the disease. During the 1862 outbreak, conventional treatment reported a mortality rate of 83.6%, whilst homeopathy affirmed a death rate of 16.4%.

5. Severe influenzaoutbreaks occur every 10-30 years of different severity. There was the Asian fluin 1957 where one million people died.                     The Hong Kong fluin 1968 killed 750,000.                                                       Spanish fluin 1918-20 caused up to 100 million people deaths. The Spanish flu was noted for attacking young people who had been otherwise well. They were dead in 48 hours. It must have been terrifying. Once again homeopathy demonstrated its success in epidemics as seen below in a few examples:                                                                                                                     Dr. McCann from Ohio reported 24,000 cases treated with conventional medicine with a mortality rate of 28.2% and 26,000 cases treated with homeopathy with a mortality rate of 1%.                                                                                                                                                                                         Dr. Stearns of New York reported homeopathic treatment of 17,000 patients, with 4% mortality.                                                                                   Dr. Palmer from Seattle treated 500 cases with homeopathy reporting 2 deaths.                                                                                                                           Dr. Swartwont of Washington gathered information from 11 homeopathic physicians of 3600 cases and reported 6 deaths.                                                                              Dr. Balcomb from Lake Wilson, Minnesota, treated 300 cases declaring no deaths.                                                                                                                                          Dr Grimmer, a well known homeopathic physician and author of many texts, stated: “The development of pneumonia is a rare occurrence if a good homeopathic physician is called during the first 24 hours of the attack”. This showed the value and importance of early homeopathic treatment.                                                                                                                     Dr. Wright treated 100 cases with homeopathy and declared no deaths.    

6. The bird flu– H5N1 strain – has a mortality rate was 50%, in other words killing 1 out of 2 people it infects, whilst Spanish flu killed 5% - so considering the dreadful outcome of the Spanish flu the potential devastation of bird flu and other viral infections could be horrendous.   

 

See appendices 1-3 below

 

Homeopathy can help without delay

 

Vaccines take a minimum of 6-9 months to prepare – if it is possible to prepare one at all. So much damage has already occurred by this time, in some cases the epidemic may have already passed and the next resurgence could be similar but a different strain, making the vaccine ineffective. 

 

However, homeopathy can produce a remedy almost instantly and should be considered in all epidemics at their inception.   

                                                                   

In Cuba – a communist country –pharmaceutical companies cannot profit as they are in other parts of the world. Cuban authorities are therefore open to homeopathy. The Finley Institute – a vaccine producer - used homeopathic prophylaxis to treat diseases such as: hepatitis A, Dengue fever, leptospirosis and conjunctivitis with significant reduction in mortality. Dr. Gustavo Bracho, an immunologist with Finley Institute, used homeopathic prophylaxis or homeopathic vaccines for 2.3 million people in 2007-2008 resulting in a large reduction of disease incidence and control of the epidemics.

 

In Africa – Homeopathy for health in Africa is an organisation successfully addressing the AIDs epidemic in Africa.

 

Published Research Papers – Homeopathy in Epidemics

 

There have been 19 published papers on epidemiological studies on 7 epidemic diseases: scarlet fever, typhus fever, cholera, dengue, meningococcal, influenza and leptospirosis, including two randomised control trials. For further information see

https://cleverhthemag.com/2015/12/01/epidemiological-studies-in-homeopathy/.

 

Conclusion

 

There is no escaping the possibility of future epidemics. The question that needs answering is, are all viable and evidence based options being explored? Are all possible choices publicly disclosed and made available? 

 

Homeopathy has been shown to be effective in treating epidemic disease historically. Homeopathy has also been shown to be effective in epidemics, contemporaneously in Cuba and Africa. Homeopathic medicine as treatment and prophylaxis can be implemented rapidly widely safely and cheaply. Homeopathy may perform well in current and future epidemics, so greater consideration should be given to this option.