While the editorial (“Of faith and fever”, Oct. 18) rightly recognises the importance of evidence in medical decision-making, it seems to undermine the value of ancient medical texts as sources of such evidence. That information contained in those texts cannot be regarded as hard evidence by contemporary standards is a given. But to suggest that such information is altogether untested, as the editorial unwittingly does, is unwise. A studied balance needs to be struck between eulogising traditional medical experience on the one side and rubbishing it as mere faith on the other. It is pertinent to remember that the life-saving malaria drug, Artemesinin, came from an ancient text of traditional Chinese medicine.
The work before the government is therefore twofold. First, it must realise that its endorsement of traditional remedies can be safe and beneficial only if the public is first educated to differentiate between dengue fever and its haemorrhagic variant. Traditional remedies are safe to use only in the former case; the latter would always require intensive medical monitoring. Second, these remedies should be expeditiously subjected to trials and, wherever possible, the evidence hardened.
G.L. Krishna,
Bengaluru
